Making Waves
by DarkElements10
Summary: Katie is tired of being the one that always sits on the sidelines and watching everyone else have fun. So she decides to take matters into her own hands and learn how to surf as a surprise to her boyfriend. Too bad her keeping it a secret is causing her so much stress. Katie/OC for Ethan on twitter. –Short Story-.
1. Chapter 1

**Making Waves**

**By: Riley**

**Summary – Katie is tired of being the one that always sits on the sidelines and watching everyone else have fun. So she decides to take matters into her own hands and learn how to surf as a surprise to her boyfriend. Too bad her keeping it a secret causes things to go out of control. Katie/OC for Ethan on twitter. –Short Story-.**

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**.:Chapter One:.**

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Katie Knight sighed loudly, turning off her computer and closing the lid with a firm press of her hand. Once her sigh ended she was greeted with…nothing. Nothing except the hum of the refrigerator out in the kitchen because for the first time since she had arrived in LA, the crib was completely silent. No yelling, no screaming, nothing being thrown, nothing being broken, just the peace and quiet that she didn't know she hated.

Who would have thought that after years of having the boys constantly running around and practically begging to be screamed at was something she actually enjoyed?

Of course she would never tell them that, as much as she enjoys having them around she deserves to have some time to herself. The only time she didn't want that time to herself was when she knew that they were having more fun without her. Was it her fault she didn't like the beach? No. Was it her fault that sand got everywhere, she always got sunburned, and the seagulls dive bombed every one and anyone that had a piece of food in their hand? No. To be quite honest, she didn't understand why anyone would ever want to spend so much time there in the first place.

And that feeling had only increased since she had gotten to LA. It was all anyone around her talked about outside of the work they were doing. "Let's go to the beach", "The beach was awesome", "Do you guys want to go to the beach?". It was enough to drive her crazy and to keep her holed up in her room all day. When she wasn't scheming on ways to make money or driving Bitters crazy herself.

Katie slid off of her bed and walked out of her room, into the quiet sitting area of the apartment. Maybe she'll get some time to watch TV by herself. With four teenage boys around as well as her mother, it was hard for her to get her way on a lot of things, especially what to watch on TV. Sure, there were the times that she and her mother were able to get through an hour of _New Town High _together, otherwise she was stuck watching some sport game, some stupid news thing, or just watching them scream at each other and act like idiots while playing some sort of video game. That was entertaining in itself, but it got boring after a while.

Katie placed her hands on her hips, pursing her lips. Who was she kidding? She had the most fun whenever the guys were around and there was no point in denying it.

The door to the apartment suddenly burst open with the shouting and laughter of her brother and his friends. Katie felt a small smile slide onto her face as she turned to greet them. _Speak of the devil. _Katie walked over to her friends and closed the door behind them. "Hey, how was the beach?" She asked them, trying to keep from sounding like she was that interested. Being in an apartment by herself for hours on end bored her more than she thought it would have.

"It was great," James replied with a warm smile. He reached out and ruffled her hair, causing Katie to push his hands away and quickly fix it. "The surf, sun, and sand were the best they've ever been."

"Mhm, and I'm sure the sunburn you got was all worth it," Logan said sarcastically, making a show of putting some more on his face. Beside him, Carlos also made a show of rubbing the lotion into his arms.

"It's better than having Mama Knight chase us around with squirt guns," he added. A second later, his eyes fell to his feet and he appeared disappoint. "Actually, that was kind of fun."

"I'd rather not go through that embarrassment again, thanks," Kendall said under his breath as he shuffled over to one of the stools at the kitchen counter. He rested his chin in his hands as he leaned forward, eyes briefly closing as he winced. "You'd think by now Mom would stop chasing us around to get us to put it on."

"And yet, you still got sunburned like crazy," Noah Jackson-McGuire commented, dropping his towel on top of the counter, neatly folding it. He exchanged glances with his siblings, Patrick, Rhuben, Riley, and Sydney as they all rolled their eyes. "It's a miracle you were able to get into the car and sit still."

"You got sunburned?" Katie's eyebrows rose and she walked over to her brother, lifting the back of his shirt. She started laughing when she got a good glimpse of the redness of her brother's back. It looked like he had been beaten with a tomato. Kendall let to a slight cry when Katie lowered his shirt once more. "You look like a lobster, Big Brother." She laughed.

"I'm not the only one!" Kendall protested, pointing over to James.

James smirked back over at the blonde, crossing his arms over his chest. He winced for a moment then the smug smile returned. "Yes, but I'm a better looking lobster than you."

"Anyway, you should have come to the beach with us Katie," Rhuben said as she put her bag on the floor and pulled herself up onto the counter. "You missed Kendall falling off his board twenty-five times in a row."

"I'm pretty sure that's a record for him," Riley added with a smirk.

"I was distracted!" Kendall protested.

"By what?" Katie laughed.

"By whom," Sydney corrected with a smarmy smile. Dimples appeared in his cheeks as everyone laughed. Riley cuffed him on the back of the head as she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, you should have come with us, Katie. It was fun."

_I'll bet. _Katie tried her hardest not to let her frown show through. Of course it was fun; everything when she wasn't around was fun. The boys didn't have to go to the Palm Woods School anymore and they were always getting into some sort of problem or plan that had turned into a good story later. Katie's frown turned back into a warm smile when her boyfriend, Patrick, walked over to her and put his arm around her shoulders in a hug. "Did you have fun?"

"Of course, spending the whole day surfing is what I dream of doing," Patrick scoffed. He ran a hand through his shoulder length black hair; the sweater had taken it down from its usual high spikes. "If I wasn't constantly in the studio I'd always be there." He then flashed her his famous lopsided smile, the one that always made her knees go weak. "Of course it would have been a lot more fun if you came with us."

"No way." Katie shook her head. "You know me, I hate the beach," she said lamely, already feeling her disappointment rise back through her once more. Not only had her brother and his friends had a good time without her, but her boyfriend had as well. "But hey, at least you didn't get sunburned!"

"We don't burn," Riley said with a wave of her hand. "Which is more than I can say for these guys." With a wicked smile, she reached out a hand and smacked Kendall on the back, causing her best friend/boyfriend to let out a yelp of pain and leap out of his seat, jumping up and down. "Sorry Hockey-Head, I couldn't resist. I'll get you some aloe vera." She went into the bathroom and came out with a tiny bottle in her hands. "James, I'm sure you're going to need some too unless you _want _your flawless skin to shed all over the place."

"I'll do it," Rhuben offered. Her eyebrows hitched up. "Though sometimes tells me that they did this on purpose."

"You know, was thinking the same thing," Riley replied.

Katie laughed and followed her friends to the living room, sitting down on the end of the orange couch. Patrick flopped down next to her, kicking off his flip-flops and crossing his legs as he did so. Katie smiled, feeling the warmth of his thigh pressed against hers. He flashed her a smile before turning his attention back to the TV as Carlos turned it on, starting to flip through the many channels for something to watch.

"So did you guys just go surfing or…?"

"That and we tried to see how big of a sandcastle we could make," Sydney agreed. He flicked his hair out of his face. "You know, before all of those fans started to chase the guys around, screaming the whole time." He wiggled a finger in his ear as if he could still hear the screeching and screaming. "Though it was pretty cool when some of them came surfing with us."

Katie sat up straight. "Some fans went surfing with you guys?"

"Yeah, it was pretty cool, actually," Patrick agreed. He gently pulled at the thunderbolt necklace that dangled around his neck. "This one girl that could ride goofy and regular foot."

"Is that good?" Katie asked.

"Most only have one preference, but she could do both," Patrick explained patiently. "Just like if you went snowboarding, you usually favor the side of your body that you use the most if it doesn't just feel better for you."

"Oh."

Katie's eyes moved downcast. Some other girls were surfing with them all day? And her boyfriend thought that was cool. It wasn't that surprised really, she reminded herself. If he wasn't working on his own band with his brothers and sisters he usually was in the water if not talking about it. And there were always other girls that went surfing too; it wasn't just a male dominated sport. But still…she didn't feel right knowing that he was hanging out with another girl when she wasn't there. Even a little jealous, which was stupid. She wasn't one that got jealous over anything, not even when Kendall got some of the latest gadgets before she could—only being before she saved her money like no one's business.

But now she could feel it creeping through her whole body and taking her over. The thought of him hanging out with another girl that probably had more in common with him than she did was enough to make her trait of having green eyes even more annoying than when someone brought it up.

Resting her chin in her hands, Katie felt her lips turn down into a pout. She wasn't antisocial by any means, but this wouldn't be the first time she had decided to back out of something and regretted it in the end. She hated herself for it, really. Patrick being her first boyfriend made things hard for her at times; it was hard to figure out how to act. What times were the best to hold his hand or to imply that she wanted to kiss him? Or was she supposed to just go ahead and kiss him herself? Would that turn him off? What about the times when they were alone? (That had never been a problem, typically because Kendall and James had seemed to make it their mission to see that they were never alone together and Carlos and Logan embarrassed her at every turn as they tried to talk to her about boys).

Why did dating have to be so confusing? She had been perfectly fine until she realized that she wasn't, in fact, made of stone and that there were many guys were very attractive around her. That was what she had dreaded when it came to growing up. She lived for the freedom to do what she wanted with her money, having a later curfew, and being able to get her permit then license, but dating was the furthest thing from her mind.

"I know you hate the beach, Katie, but you should have come," Noah added. He shrugged. "It wasn't the same without you there."

Katie waved a hand, trying to downplay the situation. _Now_ she wished that she had been there with everyone else. Did they really have to rub it in? "Once you've helped Russell Bran at least once, nothing can top that." She flashed a smile as everyone turned their attention to the TV as Carlos stopped it on a football game. Riley and Rhuben groaned in annoyance and was immediately shushed by all of the boys as they watched with rapt attention.

"Oh, by the way," Patrick murmured, so that he wouldn't be shushed as well. He dug into the pocket of his trunks and pulled out a shiny, multicolored shell. "I found this on the beach; I thought you'd like it."

Feeling herself start to blush, Katie took the seashell and gently cupped it in her hands, turning it this way and that. A different color reflected each time she turned the shell. "Thanks. It's really beautiful." She lifted her gaze from the seashell. "That's so nice."

"I'm cute too, but it's good that you noticed," Patrick joked.

Katie laughed and was suddenly struck with a thought that made her worried. Did he make the girl at the beach laugh too? Patrick joked and teased everyone, but she thought he had a special way of doing it for her. _I mean, I'm his girlfriend, right? _Katie thought. She chewed his lower lip, subconsciously running her fingers over her hair. Dry as a bone while everyone else's was wet from being out in the ocean all day. Maybe there was something to stepping out of her comfort zone a bit. Maybe there was something to surfing.

Katie slowly started to smile as she thought of a plan. A way to be have something else in common with her boyfriend, to surprise him, and to be sure he wouldn't get bored with her and jumped to the next girl that showed him her cutback. (Whatever that was).

_I need to learn how to surf._

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**A/N: **Kind of a slow start, but it gets better.

Katie is always one of my favorite BTR characters to write about (behind Kendall and James) because she's the one that has the potential for a lot of different storylines, especially because she's the youngest and she's a girl. There are so many different things that the show didn't do with her that you can do instead and being able to write about her experiences with a first boyfriend or whatever is always interesting. So I hope you enjoyed it.

This is going to be a short story, about 5-10 chapters or so.

Cheers,

-Riles


	2. Chapter 2

**.:Chapter Two:.**

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"Man, how does anyone carry these things?"

Katie grunted and slowly moved the surfboard from under her left arm to her right. Seconds after making the transition, her arm was dead from the weight that was inflicted on her. With a heavy sigh, Katie tried swinging the board up over her head and squeezed her eyes shut when she felt herself losing her grip. Squeezing her eyes shut even tighter, Katie let go of the surfboard and winced, turning her head away as it crashed to the ground. Peeking open an eye, Katie surveyed the damage to the surfboard.

It wasn't _her _board exactly, but the one that had been in the crib since the boys managed to convert their dull and disgusting apartment to the crib they now loved. Four surfboards had been put by the door and Katie had never seen the boys take it out. Whenever they did go surfing it was with rented boards. She didn't understand why, really. Why use their money to rent a board when they had some for free at the crib? Hopefully they wouldn't notice one was missing or else they would know she was up to something and ruin the surprise.

Grabbing the board with both of her hands Katie barely lifted it off the ground, instead dragging it from the boardwalk and onto the beach. Those she passed gave her funny looking, snickering behind their hands or openly pointing and laughing at her. Instead of letting it get to her, Katie lifted her chin and continued towards the ocean, sand filling her flip-flops and getting stuck between her toes. She ignored that too, though it was one of her biggest pet peeves about the beach—seagulls and how hot it got out there were close second and thirds.

"Ok, I can't carry this anymore," Katie said, slightly out of breath. She dropped the surfboard to the ground, collapsing after it. Looking around a bit, she shrugged slightly. "This looks like a good place as any," she murmured and kicked off her flip-flops, tossing them aside. She dropped her towel and spread it out then unzipped her hoodie, leaving it on the towel as well. "Now, to get it into the water."

Tugging at the drawstring of her swim shorts, Katie stretched her arms for a moment then picked up the surfboard once more. She dragged it over to the water, stopping every few feet to catch her breath, and then pushed it out into the water. The breaks weren't that big—whatever that meant, she heard James talking about it every now and then—and there didn't seem to be too many big waves that would make things too scary to try. Katie waded out into the water until she was waist deep and then tried to climb onto the board.

With a slight cry of surprise, Katie felt herself tip over and fall of the board as it rocketed out from underneath her. She fell into the water, far enough so that her butt hit the bottom of the sandbar before she bobbed back to the surface. Sputtering, Katie pushed her hair back out of her face, spitting as the harsh saltiness coated her lips. Slapping her hands against the top of the water, Katie struggled to stand, wading over towards the surfboard as it slowly drifted away. Once she reached it, she wrung out her hair and placed her hands on top of the board. It felt warm under her hands, though she was sure it was laughing at her. Why else would it have gotten away from her so quickly if it hadn't had some sort of vendetta against her for saying she hated the beach.

_It wouldn't surprise me, _Katie thought. _A lot of things about LA don't seem to agree with me. _This time, Katie tried swinging her leg up and straddling the board to try and balance herself. Instead of falling off the board sideways, she nosedived, earning face full of salt water. Katie held onto the board as tightly as she could when the board bobbed back up to the surface. It rocked back and forth for a couple of seconds before she let go, allowing herself to fall again. With a growl, Katie climbed back on and managed to find a bit of balance, waiting for the board to settle. Once she found her center of balance she paddled towards the waves that were coming her way and found that she wasn't going anywhere.

No matter how hard she wind milled her arms, she wasn't making any headway and the waves were actually pushing her back towards the beach. Taking a break, she rested her chin on the board, taking a few deep breaths.

"Um. Is there any particular reason why you're bobbing out here like a cork, Kid?"

Katie lifted her head to look around, but found herself rolling off of her surfboard and back into the water. Standing up, she swung her head, moving her hair from her face. With her hair out of her eyes, she turned around to find Riley and Rhuben standing next to her, both with expressions of confusion not her faces. Katie bent over, placing a hand on the surfboard to keep it from floating away. "Hey," she said as casually as possible. "What are you guys doing here? Shouldn't you be at the studio?"

"Lunch break," Rhuben said simply, raising and lowering her left shoulder in a shrug.

"Yeah, when we have the time we take our lunch break down at the beach," Riley explained. She lifted a finger. "It's a good excuse to get some fresh air and to get some waves in if the surf is good." Her eyes lifted and looked over the cerulean water before her right eyebrow lifted. "And, mate, it's really flat today."

"Now you tell me," Katie muttered. She grabbed the surfboard and walked out of the water, dragging the board behind her. The twin girls fell into step beside her as she moved out of the water and heaved the board onto the sand. Nose wrinkling, Katie peeled a piece of seaweed off the side of her head and tossed it to her towel. "This was a stupid idea anyway."

"What was?" Riley sat down on the sand, stretching out her legs. Rhuben sat down beside her, deciding to rest Indian style, elbows on her knees. "I mean, apart from thinking that the flattest of flat waves was able to be ridden."

Katie sighed loudly as she joined the two girls, slapping her hands against her thighs. She was silent for a long moment before finally blurting it out. "I guess I was jealous of the way that you guys are always having fun at the beach and how the guys are always so glad to go and I'm always left at the crib."

Rhuben scratched the side of her neck. "Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, Kates, but you don't like the beach," She reminded her.

Katie's pout deepened, sticking out her lower lip even more. "I do," She agreed. "But, like I said, the guys are always talking about how much fun they have and you and your brothers are _always _out here." She started to dig her finger in the sand, the hole slowly getting bigger and bigger. "And, well, I guess I got a little…jealous when I heard that some fans were coming out to surf with you guys too. I was missing out."

"Ohhhhh." Rhuben slowly nodded, now understanding what Katie was getting to. "You mean that you were jealous that girl was hanging out with your boyfriend. It's nothing you have to worry about, you know how Pat feels about you." She rested her chin in her hand, lightly tapping her chin with her fingertips. "I mean, you've been going out for almost five months now."

Katie felt herself start to smile. The—almost—five months had gone by quicker than she thought it would, considering most of the time it felt that they were just hanging out more than they were actually dating. It had confused her at first as she had expected things to be like in the movies where the new couple was found holding hands and kissing and doing everything in a romantic light all the time. However as he was her first boyfriend and she was his first girlfriend, the two were a bit shy when it came to the things that normal couples did. Katie still found herself blushing like crazy whenever he complimented her—which was almost all the time.

The only thing she disliked about dating him was her own insecurities and not knowing. Honestly, she didn't understand why he wanted to go out with her when he could have his pick of any fan—or any girl in the world for that matter—as a girlfriend. Moreover her constant questioning of herself, whether or not she was good enough for him or that she was a good girlfriend, that she was doing the right thing to be a good girlfriend made her anxiety take over the happiness she was supposed to feel.

"And I'm guessing that you're out here with a surfboard that is,"—Riley paused, eyeing it with disdain—"clearly too big and too heavy for you that you want to learn how." Katie's cheeks flushed as she slowly nodded, trying to hide her smile. Riley snorted before smirking at her friend. "I wish you had that drive to learn when I kept asking before." With a slight roll of her eyes she sat up, brushing her lock of red hair out of her eyes. "Good to know that Patrick is good for something." She and Rhuben laughed for a long moment.

Katie's eyes lit up as she straightened herself. "You mean you'll actually teach me how to surf?"

"So, what you're asking is that you want us to teach you how to surf just so you can be sure that Patrick doesn't get bored of you and so you two have something else in common?" Rhuben asked, her chin resting in her hand. "Is that about it?"

Katie smiled and nodded. "Just about."

"Wow," Riley drawled with a wry smile. "And here I thought you actually wanted to spend time with me. Good to know it's all just because of a boy." Katie made an indignant sound, her face turning even redder. "Relax, Kid, I'm kidding. We'd be glad to teach you how to surf."

"Thank you!" Katie leaned over, giving the two girls a warm hug. "I just hope that you keep it a secret. I want to surprise him when I finally learn how to carve a wave."

Rhuben gave a slight chuckle. "Actually, its _catch _a wave, _then _you carve it."

"Oh."

Riley reached out, placing her hand on Katie's shoulder. "Relax. If I can teach your brother how to surf, which was a challenge in itself, believe me, then I can teach you." She tapped Katie on the tip of the nose before crossing her arms over her chest. "You just have to do everything I say with no questions asked and you'll be ace."

Katie's nose wrinkled slightly. As much as she had gotten used to Riley and her siblings speaking with their native accent now, as opposed to them using an American one for the past three years to keep from alienating their American fans, she was having a bit of trouble figuring out what they were saying when it came to their constant use of slang. She hoped 'ace' was as good as it sounded and not that she was making a big mistake.

Rhuben pointed over at her sister with her thumb. "You can see why we have a lot of complaints." She let out a cry of pain that was mixed with laughter when Riley reached out and smacked her sister on the arm.

"Anyway, if you want to keep him from finding out about this whole fiasco, then we'd have to go to a different beach and pretty early in the morning, considering he likes to sleep in as much as possible."

Katie felt her shoulders drop. She liked her sleep and liked to sleep in as well, which was something she had found that she and Patrick had in common. She already got irritable when Carlos would wake her up with his loud screaming, Logan's late nights working on his homework, Kendall watching TV into all hours of the night, and James' nightly workout routine. Now she was going to do it willingly?

"Speaking of which, the others are up on the boardwalk if you want to hang out with us for a while," Rhuben added. She gave Katie a knowing smile, causing the younger girl to blush once more. "We got an hour lunch break and Ronan says he doesn't want us back a minute before."

"Because he has important work to do?" Katie guessed.

"No." Riley swiftly replied. "Because he knew we'd be bored and bug him." She laughed and waited for Katie to gather her things, instructing her to leave the surfboard, and followed them up onto the boardwalk. When she spotted her boyfriend she quickly ran her hands over her hair, makings sure she had every piece of seaweed out of her hair and every droplet of water was dried.

"Hey," she greeted the Jackson boys with a light wave.

"Hey." Patrick pushed himself away from the counter of the hot dog stand he was leaning against and went over to her, giving her a light hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. He flashed her his famous lopsided smile, moving back and dropping his arms from around her. She immediately missed the feeling of warmth his body gave her.

"Hi." Noah waved.

"Hey, Katie!" Sydney said with a wide smile. He stabbed at his banana split with his spoon, getting a large scoop of ice cream. "Do you want a bite?"

"No thanks," Katie said quickly. Her eyes moved over to Patrick, hopefully she had the same idea he had. That she wanted to spend some time alone with him. "I'm not really hungry yet." She clasped her hands together behind her back, gently rocking back and forth.

"So what brings you here today?" Noah asked. With a shake of his head, he flicked his long hair out of his eyes, focusing on her. "I thought you hated the beach."

"I do," Katie said automatically. She winced, suddenly realizing that would not help her case or her surprise in the slightest. "But, Lizzie asked if I would meet her here today and she was really adamant about it so…" She trailed off with a shrug, as if that explained her best friend, Lizzie Zevon's personality. And it did. Lizzie was the girlie-girl to Katie's tomboy and their personalities equally matched in that aspect.

Noah's nose wrinkled, his eyes shifting to meet Rhuben's. "Uh, didn't Lizzie have to go out of town for a dance thing?" He scratched the back of his neck. "That's what she told me, anyway." Katie mentally panicked once more. She should have made sure that she could use Lizzie as an alibi, especially considering Noah was dating her. She might have just made a huge mistake and a rift between their relationship with that one oversight.

Katie slightly shook her head. "That's what happens when I try to get Carlos to take a message for me. He's fallen out of trees headfirst so many times I'm sure he's gotten something knocked loose." With a wave of her hand she brushed off the attention put on her. "Though that's not much of a surprise. This is the guy that thinks its fun jumping on top of a moving car." She rolled her eyes and started to rock back and forth even faster. "So, were you guys planning on doing anything else or…?"

"Did you have something in mind?" Patrick quickly jumped in, pointing over his shoulder. "Because I wanted to show you something at one of the booths down the boardwalk."

Katie opened her mouth to reply and Riley quickly jumped in. "Little Man was asking me to win him something at the batting cages then we were gonna ride the Ferris wheel and that's in the opposite direction so you guys go ahead."

"Just don't do anything we wouldn't do," Rhuben added. She leaned towards Katie and put her hand by her mouth in a stage whisper. "Keep an eye on him, he's like a dog. He gets into everything if you look away for even a second."

Katie giggled and waved at the group before Patrick grabbed her hand and led her off in the opposite direction. Katie fell into step beside him, tightening her grip on his hand as they strolled past booths and game stalls.

"So what was it that you wanted to show me?" She asked her boyfriend.

"Nothing." Patrick gave a smarmy smile down at her. "I just wanted to be alone." He dropped her hand and put his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to his side. Katie smiled and snuggled up into his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

Now all she had to do was hope she could keep his attention long enough so that she could learn how to surf, surprise him, and make sure that no one would ever get in the way of their relationship.

Yeah, it was going to be that easy.

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**A/N: **And now Katie's going to start her lessons. There's going to be some Kendall/Katie brother-sister bonding this story as well as more Patie in general. Chapters will get longer. Thanks to _BTRlover1122, Rayne, Ethan, and CountryChick98_ for reviewing.

Cheers,

-Riles


	3. Chapter 3

**.:Chapter Three:.**

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Katie groaned when her alarm clock went off at six in the morning. Rolling over she reached out and quickly turned it off, hoping her mother wouldn't wake up. Mrs. Knight had always been a 'Mama Bear' in every sense of the title. If she wasn't charging into battle to save them from whatever problem came their way, she was in a deep sleep. Carlos Logan, and James had made that mistake at a sleepover exactly _once _years ago, and no one had made that mistake eve again. Not that it'd be a worry in general, ever since Katie had started to get up early to go the gym; Mrs. Knight had taken to putting soundproof headphones over her ears. Rolling onto her back, Katie groaned, bringing her hands up over her face. And she thought hockey players got up early. But as it was explained to her, it wasn't called the _Dawn Patrol _for nothing. But, as she had argued, she hadn't actually been surfing yet, all she did was sit in the gym and lift as many weights as she could. After the first couple of days, her arms were dead tired; she fell asleep in nearly any and every place, she was cranky, tired, and irritable.

It had only been a couple of days, she was starting to get used to the routine, her body didn't hurt as much. However she was starting to become frustrated with how slow things had been progressing. So far it had been nothing but days of lifting weights and running on the treadmill. How was she going to learn how to surf if she didn't actually get into the water? It was worse that she had to bail on her boyfriend, Patrick, to hang out because she had been so tired. If Lizzie weren't still out o town doing a tour with her dancing troupe, she knew the blonde girl would have given her a piece of her mind. Not only was Lizzie Zevon Katie's best friend, but she was also a surfer and would be upset to know that she wasn't the one to turn Katie's thoughts on the beach around. She'd be even more appalled to know she was letting it get in the way of her relationship. Lizzie valued boys more than anything in her life, to the point where Katie wondered if she could function without them.

Katie yawned. She was exhausted. And as annoying as it was, it was the excuse she had used not to see her boyfriend as of late, to be sure she didn't accidentally spill the beans of her surprise. She was sure it wasn't doing much, but so far he had taken it well. Besides, he was the not hat was usually breaking plans with her because of the traveling and studio work related to his own band that he had to fulfill. She had been patient about it each time he had to suddenly leave, and continued to understand it. She still couldn't help but worry he would become tired of the avoidance as, otherwise, she really didn't have an excuse.

Katie swung her legs out of her bed and quickly changed into a bathing suit, putting her workout clothes overtop of them before taking her key to the crib and her phone, and slid out of the bedroom. Grabbing her water bottle off of the table and left the crib, going into the elevator and riding it down to the lobby. Once the doors opened she was surprised to find a surfboard shoved into her face. Looking up, Katie watched Riley warily as she moved the board aside, to reveal her face.

"Hold it," she instructed before shoving the board into the young girl's face once more.

Hesitantly, Katie placed her water bottle eon the ground and reached her hands out, taking the surfboard. It was in the shape of an egg and was smooth all around. Katie immediately flashed back to her first trip at the beach, trying to learn for herself and felt secondhand embarrassment all over again. Did she really look that stupid carrying around a surfboard that was obviously not hers? Did she look even worse when she continued to get battered by the waves and forced back to shore? Her aching shoulders the next morning had been enough to keep her from wanting to go anywhere near the water but now that she was actually being taught…

Riley chuckled, seeing the hesitation on Katie's face and in her eyes. "Relax, Kid, this board is exactly what you need. It's an egg," she explained. "A hybrid of a long board and short board and the easiest to learn on because it's easy to maneuver."

Katie gave a blank stare.

Riley rolled her eyes, sounding slightly impatient. "Just hold onto it."

Katie nodded and took the board from Riley, quickly tucking it under her arm. It was lighter than she thought it would be, but not so light that it would blow away with any guest of wind. It felt perfect, actually. Better than Kendall's had. That one was top heavy and this one tucked under her arm perfectly. Taking a few steps back, Riley motioned for Katie to walk towards her. Confused, Katie did as she was told, but this time didn't question it. Would Riley get annoyed again? Even hearing the tiny bit of irritation scared Katie a bit. She had never had the older girl show her—somewhat infamous amongst her friends—anger or annoyance towards her. She was always patient and helpful a big sister in a way and everything that Katie looked up to.

Keeping her eyes on her feet, Katie waited for Riley to do…whatever she was doing. Looking for something maybe? Potential? Katie nearly snorted out loud. Yeah, right. She was a Minnesota girl; she liked to camp, go hiking, play lacrosse, volleyball, soccer, and go horseback riding. There was nowhere in there that would make her any good at surfing. Hell, even her mother had put her into a couple of months of figure skating before Katie had quit that to do what she wanted.

"You're regular footed, so that's going to make things a bit easier," Riley murmured, finally walking back to Katie's side. She leaned over and picked up the discarded water bottle, sticking it in the drawstring bag on her back. "Ace! Let's get going." Spinning her car keys around her finger she started to walk away.

Katie lifted her head, eyes widening with excitement. She actually surprised herself. Normally she would go as far as to handcuff herself to her bed post to keep from having to go to the beach, and now she really wanted to go. "You mean I'm actually going to get on the water now?"

"Well, you kind of have to," Riley said. She gave Katie an amused smile, gently shaking her head then tilting it to the side. Her eyebrows twitched together, making it seem like she was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. "They wouldn't call in surfing if it were on snow, yeah?"

Katie gave her a teasing smile in return. Two could play that game. "How would you know? You hate the cold."

Riley lifted a finger and then pointed at Katie, her dark blue eyes flashing. "You're going to pay for that one, Kid. Trust me." Katie felt better, hearing the nickname come from the older girl's mouth had proved that she wasn't mad at her. It still confused her, that she had been the last one of their large group of friends to get a special nickname. "C'mon." Riley put her hand on Katie's shoulder, gently squeezing it. "It's time to get you acquainted with what may very well be your greatest love in life."

"That's funny," Katie snorted. "Kendall's always saying that hockey is the one love in life."

"I don't call him Hockey-Head for nothing." Riley's lips curled up into a smirk. She then let out an exaggerated sigh, referring back to what she had said a second before. "Your brother and I have that in common."

"What? That you both like sports?"

"No, that we like a sport more than we like each other."

Katie laughed.

* * *

Patrick Jackson-McGuire sighed as he looked at his watch for the fifth time in the last twenty minutes. The sun, risen high in the sky, covered the boardwalk in a golden bathe of light, accompanying the sound of waves crashing against the shore, and yet he couldn't concentrate on any of it. That was already very unlike him. He was the kind of person that had such a laidback attitude that things never particularly bothered him until it was too late and he was either sent into a deep depression or into a rage. But anxiety was his worst point, when he got a tiny, nagging feeling in his head it was almost impossible for it to go away. It had been there after his parents had died; what could he have done differently? When Robert was abusing him and his siblings; was there something he could do to stop it once and for all? And then when he finally got a girlfriend, his only thought was: why does she even want to go out with me?

He had never had a girlfriend before and while he was someone that could flirt so easily, he was still afraid of something going wrong or doing something stupid to cause the relationship to fall apart quicker than he could blink. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he could handle the thought of having his heart broken which was just as funny. A tough guy like him, well known to his fans as a 'punk prince' and he cared about having his heart broken. Thankfully he always found a way to keep a smile on his face and joke in his pocket to keep people from realizing that he really had no idea what he was doing.

"Sorry I'm late!" Patrick turned around and grinned at Katie, watching as she coasted up to him on her bike. Placing her feet on the ground, she skidded for a few steps before coming to a complete stop, almost hitting his bike with hers. Katie sat back, pushing her helmet up her forehead and letting out a loud sigh. "The guys got into some sort of trouble with Gustavo, _again_, and I had to bail them out."

Patrick laughed. "Is there ever a time where they don't get in trouble with Gustavo?"

Katie gave him a teasing smile, reaching out and gently pushing his shoulder. She quickly pulled her hand away, her cheeks turning a light pink. Nonetheless, she continued with her jab. "Is there ever a time where you don't get in trouble in general?"

"No," Patrick said honestly. He placed a hand on his chest. "What sort of guy do you think I am?" It was then his turn to give her a teasing smile. "I mean, apart for being devilishly handsome and the best thing that's ever happened to you. But who's counting." Katie stuck her tongue out at him and he laughed, leaned over, and gave his girlfriend a quick kiss not he cheek. "No worries, I wasn't waiting that long." Not that day, he hadn't been waiting long. But in general, he had been waiting almost all week just to hang out with her for even a few minutes.

"Good." Katie smiled shyly then lowered her gaze to her hands, gently lifting them off of her handlebars and putting them back on. Her helmet fell into her face once more and she let out a grunt, pushing it back up.

"You seem really frazzled today," Patrick noted. He reached out his hands and placed them over hers, pressingly firmly. He lifted her helmet up and made sure it was locked into place, dropping his hands when it was situated.

"Yeah, well, you would be too if you were so tired," Katie murmured.

Patrick lifted a foot and placed it on a bike pedal, using his hands to balance the bike. "I'm constantly tired," he replied with a slight edge to his tone. As much as he tried to suppress it, aggression slid into his voice as he kept going, his words coming out rapidly. "Try having to get up early in the morning to do a workout, then go spend endless hours in the studio practicing and working hard to be able t that you have something that is able to be used the next time you want to perform it, oh and let's not forget the fact that I'm hardly ever in one place more than a few months at a time and that's not including when I'm on tour for up to a year at a time. So please don't try to talk to me about being tired." He practically spat the last word, looking away from Katie, trying to bring his irritation down. He couldn't help it; he had a low tolerance for anyone that tried to complain about such tiny and trivial things being something they couldn't work through.

Risking a glance at Katie out of the corner of his eye, and noticing that she had indeed been startled by his outburst, if not hurt, and he felt nothing but guilt wash through his body. _Way to go, Pat, you really screwed that up. _He lowered his head, mentally slapping himself. He just _had _to do what he always did, not think before he said anything and has the first thing come flying out of his mouth. Or maybe he was still bitter about the lifestyle that he had lived for so long where he was constantly under such immense pressure and little irritants were quick to get on his nerves.

"Are you mad at me?" Katie's question was quiet, almost timid. That was the last thing he wanted.

Patrick's eyebrows slammed together, his blue eyes moving over to her green ones. "What would I be mad at you about?" He was actually very confused. Had he sounded mad? He didn't mean to.

Katie shrugged. "I don't know, blowing you off so much I guess." She reached up and scratched the back of her neck, suddenly looking guilty. Patrick studied her for a long moment as her eyes shifted. He recognized the look of someone hiding something but didn't want to push it. It probably wasn't his business anyway. "I've just been tired. And _clearly _you don't like that as an excuse."

Her voice turned sharp at that moment, the same way it did for her brother and his friends whenever they—inevitably—messed up and needed some tough love to get back on track. In a way, as the story was told, she was the one that deserved the credit for Big Time Rush becoming so big. If she hadn't dished out some harsh words and pushed the boys into the Palm Woods Pool to get them to stop fighting, they would have been back in Minnesota faster than Gustavo—or Carlos for that matter—could go through a plate of doughnuts.

Patrick forced himself not to let out a growl of frustration. That was the exact thing he had been trying to avoid. He had seen couples break up for arguments less than that and…it was kind of pathetic if they broke up because they were fighting over who was more tired. The thought alone made him roll his eyes. Twisting his mouth to the side, Patrick reached out, gently nudging her cheek with his fingertips. Despite herself, Katie felt chills go down her arm at the touch and did her best not to look at him. One look into his blue eyes and she knew she would be stuck. Besides, it would be a bit fun to make him feel tortured a bit longer.

"Hey."

When he got her attention he leaned in and pressed his lips firmly against hers. Katie shyly responded to the kiss, bringing her hand up and resting it on Patrick's shoulder. Her eyes flew open when he pulled away, her blush deepening. "I didn't mean to make you upset, I was just in a bad mood or whatever." To ease the tension he sat back on his bike seat, shrugging his shoulders, trying to appear modest as he looked away. "I mean, not everyone gets to hang out with me, I just hope you aren't too disappointed having been so tired while I've had the time of my life."

"Yeah, right," Katie replied.

"Yeah, right," Patrick agreed.

"You have such an ego, you know that?"

"And I'm a great kisser too." Patrick winked at her and stood up on his BMX bike, starting to pedal it down the boardwalk. He went slow, hearing Katie push up her kickstand before peddling behind him. "And I like to think that I make you laugh, so there's a plus."

Katie smiled and biked harder to keep up with him as he effortlessly glided back and forth, standing up on his bike pedals. Periodically he would take sharp turns, weaving in and out of people when he didn't jump on up a bench and grind it with the sides of his bike, spinning the handlebars for effect before landing back on the ground.

"You don't need to impress me," Katie pointed out as she came up to his side once more. "Being able to ride one of those things is good enough." She looked down at her own road bike with admiration. She was never one that wanted to risk cracking her head open and could never understand why boys had always been that way. With that thought she glanced at his helmetless head and couldn't help but smile. It was the bad-boy in him, she guessed, that had her interested. He didn't like to be told what to do—depending on the person—had his own way of doing things and still managed to hold a sense of his mischief behind an outgoing personality and a lopsided smile.

His lip piercings did it for her as well, she could admit that.

"Then there must be many guys out here vying for your attention," Patrick remarked. He settled back down into his bike seat, eyes moving towards every guy around their age that milled along the boardwalk. Even if they were with a group of friends or weren't eve looking at the two of them, he felt annoyed. Possessive had never particularly been in his vocabulary before he had started dating Kendall's little sister, and now that she was more known as 'Kendall's little sister', his anxiety skyrocketed whenever another guy he didn't know was around.

He was a guy himself, he knew how they worked.

And the thought alone worried him.

Patrick looked at his watch and let out a curse under his breath. They were going to be late if they didn't get going. Patrick turned his head to get Katie's attention and instead, found himself blinking in surprise when he saw her shyly reach her hand out and grab onto his, holding it tightly in her hand. Patrick smiled and squeezed her hand as they continued to ride along slowly, hoping their movements wouldn't topple the other over. After a few minutes, Patrick looked at his watch again and stared to pedal faster.

"What are you doing?" Katie cried, feeling her bike speed up as well.

"I want to show you something," Patrick called back over his shoulder, tightening his grip on her hand, pulling her along for the ride. "C'mon Katie, don't you trust me?"

"That's what James says before he finds some way to make himself look good and embarrass the rest of us," Katie pointed out. _That's right,_ Patrick thought. _She used to have a crush on him; of course she would find some way to think about him right now. _He pushed the thought out of his head and, ignoring Katie's shriek of protest, continued to increase his speed on the bike, shooting in and out of the gaps that people left as they walked along the boardwalk. Patrick peddled harder, sharply turning his bike to the side, dragging her along for the ride.

"Pat!"

"It's not much further," Patrick said quickly. "How're you holding up?" He knew the answer to the question, her fingernails digging into his hand was a great indicator. He wouldn't be surprised if it scarred, adding yet another one to his long list. She glanced back at her and laughed when he saw the look of Katie holding on for dear life.

"I'm great," she replied sarcastically.

Patrick looked ahead once more and slowed his bike to a stop, turning it down a short incline and onto the beach. "Almost there, we can walk now." He let go of Katie's hand and swung his leg over the bike, holding it at his side. Katie slowly climbed off hers, probably still reeling from the wild ride, and unclipped her helmet, clipping it to the handlebars before walking alongside him.

Katie used both hands to wipe sweat off her forehead. "So are you gonna tell me where you're taking me or should I go ahead and assume that this is kidnapping?"

Patrick smiled impishly. "Nope!" Before she could protest, Patrick's hands were over her eyes and she was being pushed in a random direction. It'd be ironic if she suddenly found herself in the water. She had been there enough that morning. Katie's hands came up automatically, resting on his, suddenly enveloped by his smell of spices.

"Where are we going?" She repeated.

"Just hang on a tick," Patrick continued. He pushed his way up the hill and moved to her side, dropping his hands from hers. "Ok!" Katie opened her eyes and smiled, mouth dropping open as she watched the setting sun send a cascade of rainbow colors over the ocean water. Small ripples of the break that had dispersed over the day completed the look.

"Wow."

"Beauty, huh?" Patrick said, placing his hands on his hips. He smiled with a job well done. "Of course it can't compare to you but…I thought it'd be cool to look at." Katie brought a hand up to cover her mouth then ran it over her hair. Then a large smile slid onto her face and she turned and stood on her tip-toes to kiss him not he cheek before wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. Patrick brought his arms up and hugged her back. "What was that for?"

"Nothing," Katie replied. "It's just really what I needed."

* * *

The smile was still on Katie's face when she entered the crib later that night. Looking to her left she could see her mother putting the finishing touches on their dinner, Kendall was sitting on the couch watching ESPN, but she didn't see the other boys anywhere.

"Hey," she called, closing the door behind her. Hearing a snoring sound, she bent down and ran her hand over the back of Kendall's pet pig. "Hey Yuma."

"Hey Baby Sister," Kendall called back, waving at her with the remote. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you all day."

"I was at the boardwalk with Patrick," Katie replied. She dropped her drawstring bag to the floor and walked over to her brother, sitting on the couch next to him, looking around. Yuma trotted over and curled up at Kendall's feet, snorting quietly. "Where are the guys?"

"Logan's doing homework, surprise, surprise." Kendall smiled at his sister as she giggled. He shook his head as if flicking his hair from his face and Katie laughed at that movement as well. Ever since cutting his hair shorter he seemed to have developed that tic, not used to the new style. "Ever since he found out when they're holding the MCAT out here he's been studying like crazy. Plus I think he's taking a night class now so there's a good chance he'll be even more unbearable than he already is." Scratching the side of his head with the remote he winked at Katie when she looked over her shoulder to see if the smart one of the boy band had heard him. "Carlos and Stephanie went out to dinner with her Dad and James is doing pushups or some other thing that has him in the mirror in his room." He put his arm around Katie's shoulders and pulled her into his side. "So, for now, it's just you and me."

"Cool." Katie snuggled into her brother's side, turning her attention to the basketball game that was playing. Sports were never really her thing, but basketball was always the one sport she could pay the most attention to. Especially college basketball, she secretly hoped her brother would ditch hockey for the other winter sport so she could have a free ride to the games. She had high hopes for his hockey career, nevertheless. "So how was working the studio today?"

"Same as always," Kendall replied. "We sing, Gustavo says we suck, I talk back, he gets mad, and eventually we're chased out of the studio, wait about an hour, then go back in and do it all again." He smiled impishly as Katie rolled her eyes. "With your help of course." He nudged her shoulder. "Thanks for talking Gustavo off the ledge for us."

Katie crossed her arms. "It's the least I can do, Big Brother," she said with an air of modesty. "Just as long as you put me first in your album thank-you's, I become your talent manager when your hockey career takes off, and I get at least twenty percent of your salary."

Kendall leaned forward and called over towards their mother. "Did she get the money hungry thing from you or Dad?"

"Your father," Mrs. Knight called back. She turned from the stove and gave him a pointed look. "All of your good qualities came from me and my side of the family." Kendall nodded and leaned back against the couch. He and Katie exchanged amused glances. "I saw that."

"Oops." Katie murmured.

"Anyway, I have the day off tomorrow," Kendall continued. "So we should do something together. Go to the mall, go into town. Whatever you want to do."

Katie thought for a moment then made a face. Nervously, she pulled her hair over her shoulder and started to run her fingers through it. "Actually, Big Brother, I'm doing something with Rhuben tomorrow. And it may take a while." She pressed her fingertips together, hating the look on her brother's face. She loved to spend time with him and while they had been in LA it had been few and far between. Turning it down really sucked.

"You know, I'm starting to think that you like the Jacksons more than you like me," Kendall continued, poking her on the cheek.

"It took you that long to figure that out," Katie replied. She thought for a long moment. The work she was going to do with Rhuben shouldn't take the whole day, just the morning until mid-afternoon, the older teen had promised. Katie's shrieking muscles begged her to slow down. She hadn't gotten much further out on the board that day, but she had managed to somewhat find her balance. Even doing something as simple as that was dragging her down. "Actually, I think I can squeeze you in Big Brother, just as long as you carry me most of the way like you used to."

"You have your own feet," Kendall reminded her.

"Yeah, but you're going to need to build those non-existent muscles somehow." Katie reached out and squeezed his bicep. Shaking her head, she let out a disappointed sigh. "I mean, even Carlos and Logan have more muscles than you do and you've been playing hockey longer than any of them."

"My muscles are in my legs."

"Explains how you can run so fast when Gustavo is chasing you." Katie rested her head on Kendall's shoulder once more. She felt her eyelids starting to droop. Fighting off a yawn she closed her eyes for a brief moment before popping them back open. She even went as far as to lift her eyebrows to try and keep her eyelids up, eyes starting to roll around. She was probably making some grotesque faces while doing so. Katie giggled sleepily, allowing her eyes to close.

Kendall made a sound of offense then stuck his nose in the air. "Just for that, I won't buy you any ice cream." He expected some sort of response; a punch to the arm, a pinch to the ear, a whack on the back of the head, having his nose pinched shut. But he got nothing. "Katie?" Kendall looked down at his little sister breathing deeply. "Katie?" He gently shook his shoulder, jostling her. Instead of waking up, Katie pulled up her knees and gently dropped her arm on Kendall's chest.

Kendall smiled. "Goodnight, Baby Sister."

* * *

**A/N: **A little trouble in paradise for Patrick and Katie already. But of course there had to be a cute moment between them. I think this is one of the few BTR stories I've written that has a really lighthearted plot (apart from _One of the Guys)_. I guess I got a little too used to writing a lot of angst/drama. But that's bound to come into this story, with the small taste in this chapter.

Anything else you want to see as the story goes on?

I hope you guys enjoyed it, I'll update again soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


	4. Chapter 4

**.:Chapter Four:.**

* * *

"So how is this going to help?" Katie bounced her soccer ball off the tip of her toe then bounced it off her knee before catching it between her hands. She spun it around a few times before resting it on her hip. She watched, eyes widening as Rhuben bounced the ball from her left foot to her knee, to her shoulder, to her head, to her right shoulder, to her right knee, to her right foot, then kicked it back up to her hands. "Better question, how did you do that?"

Rhuben chuckled, dribbling the soccer ball back and forth between her feet in a pendulum motion. "A lot of practice, Kates. A lot of practice." She placed the ball on the ground then sat down, stretching out her legs, leaning forward and grabbing onto the bottom of her feet. She pressed her forehead against her knees, completing bent over, and held it for a few moments before sitting up again, gently bobbing her knees up and down. She leaned back, resting her hands on the grass behind her. Reaching up a hand, showing off a silver band around her right ring finger, she swiped it through her hair. "And juggling a soccer ball helps with your hand-eye coordination, which in turn, helps while on a wave." She angled her head and gave Katie a long look. "While on a wave you have to look forward in the next couple of seconds, anticipate what the wave is going to do and give yourself and out before it barrels you and you'll be beauty." She held her fingers up in the OK sign and smiled. "You're making progress."

"Really?" Glumly, Katie rested her chin on her upraised knees. "Cause at this point all I have to show for it is barely there muscles that are starting to get bigger." She ripped a handful of grass off the ground and threw it. "I think I'm just better at my cunning wit and sneaky, evil ways."

"There's that," Rhuben agreed. "But you can't expect to be great at something when you first learn how to do it. Everyone has it hard when they learn a new sport." She held up a finger. "Also because water sports bring in the added danger of sharks, jellyfish, currents, tows, rips, drowning, poisonous wild life—"

"And yet people like this sport." Katie rolled her eyes. She picked up another handful of grass and threw it. "Lizz is probably going to be mad that I haven't told her that I started to learn. She's always been trying to get me to go out there, even when we first met." Her nose wrinkled for a moment. "She's supposed to get back today, right?"

"Umm." Rhuben looked at her purple and white ice watch, the reflection of the sun off the face nearly blinding Katie. "Yeah, earlier today as a matter of fact. She should be in by now. Dak went to go get her."

"And you didn't want to go?" Katie's eyebrows rose. "It would have given you and Dak some time alone," she added speaking of the teen-icon and Rhuben's boyfriend.

Rhuben snorted loudly. "And wake up at three in the morning just to pick her up? Hell no. I wouldn't even do that for Ronan." Her eyes shifted behind Katie and she pointed with her chin. "Speaking of which…" Katie turned around at the sound of a loud squeal and barely got to her feet in time for Lizzie Zevon to crash into her, wrapping her arms around Katie and lifting her off her feet. It only emphasized Lizzie's height over her. Rhuben laughed, still sitting on the ground. She held out a hand, allowing Dak to pull her to her feet in one easy tug before sliding her arms around his neck and gladly receiving the kiss he gave her. "Figured you'd be here earlier, I tried to stall."

Dak looked at her through lowered eyebrows, moving his arm around her shoulder. "You try to deal with her and her five bags in baggage claim and her going through _every single one _to be sure everything was still there."

"Hey!" Lizzie finally put Katie back on her feet and put her hands on her hips, wiggling her neck. "A girl needs her things," she defended herself. With a flip of her hair over her shoulder, she turned back to Katie. "_Anyway_ I have so much to tell you."

"So do I," Katie agreed. "Considering you've abandoned me for the past two months. Do you know how bored I've been with nothing but the guys around?" She brought a finger up to her forehead and started to gently tap her temple. "They've been driving me completely crazy! And it doesn't help that the Trouble Twins did nothing but fuel it."

"Sorry mate, but once the guys get going its hard not to do anything but join in and be one of the guys," Rhuben apologized, though she didn't look sorry.

"I've heard plenty of stories, trust me," Dak said. He leaned towards Katie, discreetly pointing at his girlfriend. "Seriously, you have never seen it when these guys get utterly bored. Stay away when it gets to that point." Rhuben reached out and whacked him hard on the back. Dak straightened up. "Relax, Sugar Plum, I was just joking."

Katie looked at Lizzie and the two mimed sticking fingers down their throats. Dak waved a hand at the two girls.

"Anyway, were you ready to go?"

"I brought my car."

"That's alright, Lizard can take mine." Dak dug into his pockets and produced a set of keys. Lizzie, eagerly wiggling her fingers, held her hand out towards her brother. Dak put the keys into her hand then held on tight when she tried to move away. "I better not find any scratches on it when you bring it back."

"I was going to say the same to you," Lizzie said with a sweet smile.

Katie laughed and gathered her soccer ball from the ground. "Thanks for the help, Rhu." She tucked her ball in front of her, holding it against her with both hands. "I'll see you guys later."

"You deserve a couple of days off," Rhuben said. "Get some rest. Then we'll take you back later."

"Ok." Katie smiled and waved at the couple before turning back to Lizzie, kicking the ball away from her and over towards Dak's car. "So what does it feel like to be back?" She asked Lizzie, walking with her to where Dak's truck was parked at the park edge. "I mean, you've been on a tour buys for two months, the smell must have gotten to you."

Lizzie put her arm around Katie's shoulders, bringing her into her side. She reached out and tapped the brunette on the nose. "You've been around the boys too much." She tilted her head back and heaved a heavy sigh. "I was so jealous. Don't get me wrong, the girls in my trope are cool, but I can't be around them too much for too long. They talk too much and they don't seem to want to have _any_ fun." She dropped her arm from Katie's shoulders and pressed a button on the remote, unlocking the doors to the truck. Katie tried to hide her smile as she got into the passenger seat, high off the ground, and pulled the door shut behind her with some effort. "I don't think any of them know anything about getting snacks from the vending machine without having to pay, or playing pranks on the hotel manager, or ding-dong ditch or anything."

Lizzie then leaned over and placed her hand on Katie's shoulder, pouting up at her. "I was so bored without my best friend."

Katie rolled her eyes. _Overdramatic much? _But she couldn't fault Lizzie for it. The girl had always been like that it was something Katie usually enjoyed. "Well, I'm glad you missed me so much. I missed you too, of course. It really stinks for me when you leave, you know." Lifting her feet, she rested her purple converses on the dashboard as Lizzie started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot, heading towards the city. "Anyway, there's something I haven't been tell you when you call and text and stuff."

"Let me guess," Lizzie said. She paused for dramatic effect. "You and Patrick did it?"

"What?!" Katie blurted before she could stop herself. She felt her face starting to turn red. Lifting her hands, she covered her face before lowering the slapping her hands into her lap. "No! I've barely even kissed the guy before a few months ago and—"

"—and we know how long you agonized over that—"

"—and we're taking things _slow_," Katie insisted. "Besides, I'm sure everyone would kill him if that were the case." An image popped into her head and Katie quickly shook it away, her face becoming enflamed once more. The only thing that could top that moment was seeing James, Logan, and Carlos after having taken a shower while at one of Kendall's sleepovers, shortly after having realized that boys were more than people you played tag with at recess. "_Anyway, _I was back at the apartment one day and I realized how bored I am when everyone is having so much fun at the beach." She started to twiddle her fingers together, feeling the crushing weight of sadness fall over her once more.

It was one of the things she hated the most, feeling left out. Being the youngest was always hard on her, especially as her birthday was 'late' in the school year and all of her friends turned the next age way before her. She was teased for being the youngest and the shortest, causing her to acquire her strong demeanor quickly. Sure, her father leaving them had something to do with it, but it didn't affect her as much as it did Kendall. As a matter of fact Kevin being there was more like a dream than anything else. If it weren't for pictures, she could sometimes trick herself into thinking it was just a dream.

Katie took a deep breath, moving her wavy hair from her face once more. "Uh, I realized that everyone was having so much fun at the beach. And as much as I hate it, I realized how lonely it is when everyone else goes and I just stay at the crib, waiting for them to get back."

"I keep telling you that," Lizzie said in a sing-song voice.

"Any_way_," Katie broke in sharply, signaling her annoyance. Lizzie zipped her lips and slowed at a stop light. Katie glanced out the window, surprised to see they were already in downtown LA. She hadn't realized they had been driving so far already. "I asked…and Riley and Rhuben said they'd teach me how to surf." She squeezed her hands together. "I'm doing it as surprise for Patrick, so I can show him that I learned how."

There was silence for a moment then,"

"I KNEW IT!" Lizzie shouted at the top of her lungs, causing Katie to jump." I knew you didn't hate the beach as much as you said you did. No one can. Well, maybe people that are never around it, but there are lakes up in Minnesota. I think." Katie snorted at Lizzie's statement before leaning out of the way of Lizzie moving to slap her on the arm. "But I've been trying to get you to learn how to surf for ages and _now _you learn how? All because of a boy?"

Katie felt her face burn at the implication and Lizzie must have noticed it because she softened her voice, turning on the wheel as the light turned green and they moved around the corner. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know." Katie nodded slowly.

She sucked in a deep breath, closing her eyes. She felt a little pathetic about it, really. She always told herself she wouldn't become one of _those _girls that tried to fake interest in something a boy she was interested in liked. The thought came back to her, nagging. Her mother had given her that advice after they had their first health class where she was told her body was going to be going through changes soon. Katie, bright-eyed at the world had thought it was a good idea to ask how to get a boy to like her, in case the time ever came, of course. And Mrs. Jennifer Knight had suggested that she try to become interested in the same things the boy liked. Katie thought it was terrible advice, knowing it would end in failure and ridicule.

_Who knew I would actually be taking her advice for once? _Katie slouched in her seat with more appreciation for her mother than she had felt ever before. Even when Mrs. Knight had done on strike that one time, quitting her job of being a mother, it wasn't until nearly the end of the day that Katie had finally admitted being a mother was much harder than she anticipated. Of course she didn't make life much easier for her. "You weren't there though, Lizz." Katie rolled her head to look at her blonde friend. "There was this girl there that was surfing with them and…she might have flirted with him, I don't know." She shrugged. "I don't know what he did, but I can't help but imagine it."

"I know how you feel, girlie," Lizzie said sympathetically. "It's hard to see girls throw themselves at Noah," she said with a light sigh. "Especially who quiet he is, sometimes he can't handle the attention and clams up, not sure what to say about it." She gave a dramatic sigh, causing Katie to laugh again. "I don't know how the older girls do it."

"Well, ever since the whole Lucy thing Riles can't stand it," Katie said. She bobbed her head back and forth. "But she does her best to hide it, of course." She held up a finger. "She says she's not jealous though." Lizzie gave her a knowing smile and the two laughed quietly. "Uh, Rhuben doesn't like it either, but she deals with it more in a way that you wouldn't notice unless you're paying attention. Camille gets jealous, as we've all seen. Jo gets jealous. And Stephanie doesn't really have that problem."

"Lucky her."

Lizzie pulled into a parking space and turned off the engine. Katie hopped out of the car and walked around to see she her friend had pulled into a frozen yogurt place and was already charging inside, purse swinging under her arm. "Let me guess," Katie teased. "Your diet while working is killing you?"

"You have no idea," Lizzie agreed.

Katie stepped into line behind Lizzie and ordered a French vanilla frozen yogurt with fruit loop pieces on top. The two went over to a table by the window and started to eat. Katie smiled as the creamy desert filled her mouth. She swallowed the bite and took another one, chomping into the cereal pieces then spoke up again. "I really do want to learn how," she said. "But I'm kind of afraid I won't do well. Mom has always said that athletics runs in the family, mostly because of Dad, but Kendall always manages to pick things up quickly and I always take forever."

"I don't believe that." Lizzie pointed at her with her spoon. "I heard that you were kicked off your field hockey _and _lacrosse teams because of unsportsmanlike behavior."

Katie grinned evilly. She could admit she let out a little bit of her aggression on the sports field sometimes. Was it really her fault that those girls continuously got in her way? They should have figured out the first time that she meant business. _Mom was proud. I'm sure of it. _She remembered having a lecture of the sort of behavior on the field over dinner that night, but one look at the proud smile that Kendall was trying to hide and the pride she saw hiding in her mother's eyes she knew she was off the hook.

"Oh come on, you're a Knight, you can do anything," Lizzie insisted. "I don't know anyone besides you that can drive a hotel manager crazy enough so they got grey hair."

Katie blew on her knuckles then buffered them against her chest. "I try."

The two girls laughed.

"You're going to do great, Katie. Just believe in yourself." Lizzie smiled warmly. "I already do."

Katie smiled.

* * *

"So where have you been _this _time?" Katie blinked, startled when a bright light was shined in her face the second she walked through the doors of the crib. She dropped he soccer ball to the ground and reached up a hand to shield her face, finding Carlos standing in front of her, holding a flashlight up above his head, pointing directly down at her. "Robbing a bank? Or locking Gustavo and Kelly in the Rocque Records vault? Or hiring a hit man to—"

"Here's the hit man!" Katie punched Carlos hard on the arm, causing him to let out a screech of pain. Her eyes moved over Logan, James, and Kendall, who were sitting on the couch, laughing at Carlos's whimpers. He held his arm to his side, hurrying back over to the couch.

"Kendall, she hit me!" Carlos whined, jumping onto the couch next to the blonde.

Kendall laughed, bringing his arms up and resting them on the back of the couch. He brought up his right leg and balanced it over his left. "I told you, you were running that risk when you thought interrogating her was a good idea."

"Gee, thanks Big Brother," Katie said, walking further into the apartment. She squinted an eye shut. "And since when is it that everything I do is your guys' business?"

"Since you start to run off at all hours of the day without telling anyone," Logan replied calmly. He held up a hand when Katie rolled her eyes. "We're just worried about you, Katie. We've seen how tired you've been lately and we just hope that nothing's going on."

James scratched the back of his head then turned to face Katie as well, flashing her a charming smile. "Logan thought we should have started calling hospitals hours ago," he explained. "Apparently he doesn't think you can handle yourself, like I do." He winked at her, causing Katie to smile.

"Suck up!" Carlos complained, still nursing his wound.

Katie laughed and walked around the front of the couch and sat down on the coffee table, crossing her legs as she did so. Resting her chin in her hands, she put her elbows on her knees. "So what is this? An intervention or something?"

"No, Baby Sister," Kendall said patiently. Katie was sure that if it wasn't for the sincere smile on his face that her brother would have been hiding an evil, malicious intent behind his eyes. Ready to kill anyone and anything that would potentially bring harm to her. "We just want to know what's going on."

Katie's smile faded and she grumbled, turning away from them. "Nothing."

"If it were nothing it wouldn't be a big deal," James insisted. He leaned forward, staring intently at her. "Don't forget, I have a strict hair care, face care, and body care routine that I go through every day starting early in the morning." He wagged his finger in her face. "I know that you've been leaving." Katie leaned forward and tried to bite the tip of his finger. James pulled his hand back with a mini-scream. "She almost flawed me."

"I didn't get anywhere near your face, loser, relax," Katie said, giggling a little.

"Katie." Logan got her attention. "If there's anything that you need help with, you can just tell us." His voice was low and soothing. "If there's anyone bothering you…is that Victoria girl bullying you again? If she is, you can tell us."

Katie's right eye twitched for a moment and she turned away from the boys. This was so ridiculous it should have been funny. They were so into what they thought was an intervention she was surprised they hadn't handcuffed her to a chair and forced her to tell them what was wrong. All because she was trying to keep a surprise what it was supposed to be; a secret. This just proved that they were a little too overprotective and didn't trust her that much. But on the other hand it proved they did care for her that much.

"I'm not taking drugs, I'm not in any trouble, I'm not having sex," Katie finally said.

Kendall nearly choked at the words, his face turning red. "You better not be," he warned her.

Katie smiled at her brother. "Mom knows…because I had to tell her or else I wouldn't be able to go…" she started. The boys leaned towards her, Carlos bringing the flashlight up once more. Katie grabbed the flashlight and turned it off, throwing it back onto the couch. Carlos stuck his tongue out at her, causing Katie to do the same. "I'm not in any trouble," she repeated.

"So what are you doing?" Carlos asked now. He had given up his façade of being the 'bad cop', reminiscent of his own father, and was now back to his old self, as caring as ever.

"I'm trying to learn how to surf," Katie finally admitted. Seeing the apathetic looks on the boys' faces she suddenly wondered she thought it was such a big deal. "And the only times that have been good, around the Jacksons' schedule is early in the morning and during some afternoons."

"Wait, they know?" Logan's eyebrows rose.

"Not all of them," Katie admitted. "Riles and Rhubes do, they're teaching me."

"Ah ha!" Kendall punctured the air with a stab of his index finger. "I _knew _you liked them more than us!"

"Duh," Katie said with a roll of her eyes. "You're al stupid and I've been around you long enough to know everything about you." She started to count off on her fingers. "I've been around you when you burp, fart, scratch your butt, scratch your balls, pick your noses, and puke and laugh at it all because you think it's hysterical." The four boys looked at each other and burst out laughing, high-fiving each other as they reminisced about something. "And you just proved my point."

Once the boys sobered up, Logan ran a hand through his hair. "So why did you want to keep it a secret?"

Katie felt herself blush and hated for it. "I don't want Patrick to know. It's a surprise for him." Her eyes moved over the boys. "And you four can't keep a secret so I didn't bother telling you."

Kendall gaped at her. "Even me?"

"You're a terrible, _terrible _liar," Katie reminded him.

"That's true."

Katie waved her hands. "So it's not a big deal? Just…for once, keep your mouths shut please?" She stood up and placed her hands on her hips, looking over the boys once more. "Now, is that everything? Are there any other questions?"

"Not a question, but I have a statement," Carlos declared. He cleared his throat then started to speak in his most regal voice. "Under the Big Brother Code, section two, paragraph three, it is started that if someone is found out in a life the liar must endure a tickle torture from the brother—"he motioned over to Kendall. "Or the brother that stands in,"—he motioned to himself, James, and Logan. "Whenever the former brother can't perform his duties."

"No!" Katie shrieked before Kendall grabbed her and dragged her onto the couch, the four boys tickling her, her laughter mixing in with theirs.

* * *

**A/N: **I had to have Lizzie come up at some point; hers and Katie's interactions are always fun for me to write. Is the pacing of the story ok or do you want it to move a bit faster? I have a smaller side-plot that's coming in the next chapter, so that might move things along a bit. Other than that, anything else you'd like to see? I hope you guys liked the chapter.

Cheers,

-Riles


	5. Chapter 5

**.:Chapter Five:.**

* * *

"So do you want to hang out today?" Katie spun her fingers in her blankets, waiting for the response on the other end of the phone. She chewed her lower lip as the seconds passed. "Maybe go to the park or the pier or something?"

Patrick let out a heavy sigh and Katie imagined him running his hands over his hair, being careful not to mess up the spikes he carefully and methodically styled every morning. "I would, but I'm stuck in the studio all day," he said in a low mumbled. "I have some bass licks that I have to do and then other portions on rhythm that I have to re-do because of some recording problems." She could hear him let out a grunt accompanying the sound of a loud 'twang' of a guitar, and then he cursed. "And of course all of this would happen when I'm the only one that's scheduled to work in the studio today."

"Where's everyone else?" Katie's eyebrows furrowed together for a moment. "Wait; let me guess, at the beach, right?" She smiled, knowing she had the right answer.

"No, surprisingly," Patrick replied. "Any other day, betcha you would have had it." He cleared his throat. "No, Julius took the others down to San Francisco for the day and it sucks because I'm stuck here all day." Now she was sure he was pouting.

"Oh." Katie's shoulders slumped. That explained why she wasn't having a surfing lesson that day. She winced as soon as the thought came to her mind. It wasn't what she meant, that she only wanted to hang out with her boyfriend when she wasn't…busy. Katie sighed. Yeah, that's basically what it was. _God, I knew dating was hard before I started liking boys but no one told me it would still be hard, even if you had a boyfriend. _Out of the corner of her eye she saw movement and turned her head to see Kendall waving a hand at her, trying to get her attention. Katie waved him off. "Well, are you going to be finished anytime soon?"

"Not that I'm aware of." Patrick played a few strings on his guitar then plucked a few notes as he tuned the strings. Katie guessed she had dropped the guitar to the floor before when she had heard that loud twang sound. "It's like I said before, I have to re-do a lot of stuff and it's a lot harder than most people think." He paused. "_That _sucks because I really wanted to see you today. We haven't been able to get together since we went bike riding on the boardwalk."

Katie flushed with guilt. "I know," she said. Kendall continued to wave towards her, but after seeing she was ignoring him, he disappeared from view. When he came back, a few seconds later, he had a couple of pillows in his hands. "I've just been—"

"Busy?" Patrick broke in. She could hear the bitterness in his tone.

"Sorry," Katie apologized. "I know you don't like that as an excuse, but—"She cut off her sentence, feeling a pillow slam into the side of her head. Glaring, Katie lowered her cell phone and picked up the pillow, heaving it at her brother as hard as she could. Kendall caught it and lobbed it back to her. Katie frowned and threw it back to him, ducking out of the way as another one came flying in her direction. "Leave me alone!"

"What's wrong?" Patrick asked, suddenly sounding concerned. No, Katie realized. Not concerned, maybe a little annoyed. His voice had changed. She didn't recognize the tone he was using. It was jarring really, considering he was usually such a happy and playful person. "What's going on?"

"Nothing!" Katie stood up on her bed and whipped her arm around, shooting the pillow right into Kendall's chest. He let out a short cry, fumbling the pillows in his hands to the floor.

"Who is that?"

"Nobody," Katie replied. She moved the phone to her shoulder and took her own pillows off her bed, throwing them back towards Kendall, pelting him as he turned his back to pick up the other ones. "Um. Well what if I—"

"I have to go," Patrick said shortly. "I'll see you later." He hung up.

Katie looked at her phone in surprise before shoving it into her pocket. She jumped off the bed and grabbed a fallen pillow, bringing it back over her head and striking Kendall not he arm with it as he turned back around. "Thanks a lot!" Katie cried over her brother's cry of pain. "I was talking to Patrick and now he's mad at me!" She smacked him again. "What did you want, anyway? Nothing I'll bet! God, you can be so annoying!"

"Whoa! Whoa!" Kendall reached up and grabbed onto Katie's arm, holding her still. She struggled to pull away from his grasp. "Katie, I was just kidding. I didn't think that it'd be a big deal if I messed with you a little bit." He let go of her arm and she crossed her arms over her chest, turning away, doing her best to keep her eyes hidden. "I'm sorry if I upset you, Baby Sister." Katie glanced at him through her fringe, he did looked genuinely upset.

_Great, now I have two people mad at me, _she thought before turning back to him. "It's OK," she muttered, scuffing her foot against the ground.

"I just thought that we could hang out today," Kendall continued, reaching up and running a hand over his forehead to his hair. Katie did her best not to burst out laughing. It appeared her big brother still wasn't used to the fact that his hair wasn't as long as it used to be. It had gotten to the point that Katie was keeping a running tally and bet with James of how any times he would do one motion over the other the most by the end of the month. "You know, since you're always going off somewhere." He gave her a gentle smile. "You know, it's kind of funny how things are going now. Before you would try your hardest to hang out with me and now I'm trying my hardest to hang out with you."

Katie shrugged once more. "Yeah, well, things change and we all get busy." She closed her eyes, realizing her tone had mimicked Patrick's from their earlier conversation. She lowered her arms from her chest and glanced at Kendall out of the corner of her eye. "You've been dating girls for a long time…"

"I guess," Kendall said slowly. The expression of intense confusion on his face proved he had no idea where her conversation was leading. "Yeah."

"When you were always gone for your hockey games or for touring or doing some sort of appearance and stuff, how do you juggle a relationship at the same time?" Katie finally turned and faced him fully. "I mean, Patrick is the one that's always the busiest of the two of us, but he's been doing it for such a long time that balance is like second nature to him. But when I get busy…because I'm trying to surprise him, it's like I can't please anybody." She paused, slightly looking away from him. "Well, except Lizzie, because she always seems to her get way somehow."

"I know the feeling," Kendall laughed. He entered the room and sat down next to Katie on the bed, patting the mattress so that she sat down as well. "The only thing that you have to remember is that you're young and this is your first relationship." He placed a hand on his chest. "No matter how uncomfortable I am, knowing that my Baby Sister is dating, it was bound to happen at some point."

Katie rolled her eyes.

"And it's your first _real _relationship," Kendall continued, ignoring the orbit of Katie's eyes. "So things are new and you're just trying to figure out how things are. You're still balancing a boyfriend, and your friends, and your family, and your school work, and your own obligations and no one can fault you if you get confused."

"But you and Riley manage to do it."

"Yeah, because we _want _to. Sure, she says that she can't get rid of me and that I don't leave her alone, but you know she's not great at expressing what she's really feeling unless she's backed into a corner or feels comfortable enough."

"And the guys?"

Kendall chuckled. "James can't seem to function without a girlfriend, I don't think Logan will ever get Camille's hooks out of him, Carlos is clingy—in an endearing way, and do you really think that Dak would want to screw up something he tried so hard to get all these years?"

Katie laughed, but then her laughter was cut short due to a groan that had been resting inside her. "But how are you not confused?" Katie insisted. Her shoulders slumped. "All I'm doing is going to the beach every couple of days but every time I talk to Patrick now, I feel like I'm walking on egg shells."

"Well, how do you think he feels?" Kendall pressed. He leaned forward and gently nudged her shoulder. "I mean, you're his first girlfriend too."

"But—"

"—and I know you're really anxious about everything because he's always in the spotlight and has lots of fans trying to get his attention." Kendall gave her a sly smile. "Like that girl at the beach that was surfing with us."

Katie's eyes widened. "How did you know about—"

"—I'm your brother, Katie, not blind. And the only piece of advice I can give you is to relax and don't stress about everything so much." He thought for a moment, rubbing his chin. "Did I hear correctly that Patrick is stuck at the studio?" Katie nodded. "So why don't I drop you off at the studio and you can surprise him? I'm sure he'd like that."

"Really?" Katie perked up.

"Really." Kendall placed a hand on his chest. "Besides, it seemed like he was kind of mad and my messing with you didn't seem to matter much." He reached over and lifted Katie up into his arms, gently spinning her around before heading towards the door. "And because I'm so nice, I'll make one of my special lunches for you to bring with you. It's romantic, trust me."

Katie's upper lip curled before she could stop it. "I wouldn't put that on your resume, Big Brother," she suggested, patting him on the shoulder. It was the best way she could recover from the face she had made. She knew that Kendall prided himself on being a romantic guy. She had seen it with each and every girl he flirted with and every girlfriend he managed to get. Romance, on the other hand, had never really been her thing. She hated rom-coms and every instance of a kissing scene in movies or video games she would fast-forward through. She was glad to have found that Riley and Rhuben—originally—were the same way, it being a great contrast of having to be forced to watch chick flicks with Lizzie when it was her turn to choose a movie. But even Kendall and Dak had been able to prove the girls were romantic at heart.

Now even Katie was starting to find herself falling in that direction. Watching her Dak, her brother, James with Jo, Carlos with Stephanie, and Logan with Camille coming and going from the apartment with their girlfriends, even if they were all just hanging out, she saw the little things they would do that caused their girls to smile. A quick handhold here, a borrow of a jacket there, some light teasing here, and a hug there kept them with bright smiles on their faces. Was it so bad that she wanted that too, but was too shy to say anything or do anything about it? And apparently her own boyfriend was too shy to do anything about it either. Heck, they didn't have their first kiss until new years, which was about three or four months after they started dating. It was hard to have to wait that long, especially when everyone around her tried to give her advice by telling the tales of their own kisses which had happened ages before.

"I'll keep that in mind," Kendall said.

Arriving at the kitchen, Kendall gently placed Katie on her feet, leaning over and giving her a kiss on the side of the head before going over to the refrigerator to see what was inside they could use. Katie pulled herself up onto a stool by the counter, resting her chin in her hand. What was it that had made him so upset? Just because she was talking to her brother and trying to get him to leave her alone. Maybe he thought she was with someone else? Maybe he thought she was still into James or something, she was sure the hesitation and insecurities weren't only on her part.

_This is so frustrating. "_Maybe I should just tell him what I'm doing," Katie said out loud. She dropped her hand onto the counter top, gently drumming her fingers. "Keeping it a secret doesn't seem to be helping anything."

"No. That's the _last _thing you want to do," Kendall said. He turned and placed his hands on the counter top, leaning towards his little sister, his green eyes trained on hers. "I know things are hard going but they can only get better. And the fact that you're taking time to learn something he's really interested in just shows how much you care for him." He stood up, pretending to dab at his eyes. "It's so cute."

"I'm _not _cute!" Katie brought her arm back and punched her brother in the stomach. She felt bad, but smiled smugly when Kendall wrapped his arms around his stomach, face growing pale, halving himself.

Kendall managed to nod. "Right, not cute." He gave her a thumbs up before sucking in another wheezy breath.

"Geez, Big Brother, with all of the workouts you do, you'd think you'd have abs of steel by now," Katie said. She laced her fingers together and smiled sweetly at her brother as he regained his breath, taking a moment before turning back to the refrigerator.

"Whatever," he finally said. "Do you want my help or not?"

"Yes," Katie said honestly.

"Then don't shoot Cupid when he's at work."

"Thanks, Big Brother."

"You're welcome, Baby Sister."

* * *

Patrick frowned, reaching up and pulling headphones off of his head so that it rested around his neck. He shifted back and forth on his stool waiting for the notes he was inevitably about to get. Just by judging the look on his father's face, he could see Ronan McGuire wasn't happy. "You may as well give me the bad news, old man, I can take it."

Ronan, eyes locked on his son, leaned forward and firmly held his finger against a button. "I'm not old," he said, voice coming in through the recording booth. "And you're doing a good job. I don't know why you're getting so upset by it."

"Sorry." Patrick raised and lowered his right arm in a shrug. "I got a lot on my mind."

"Is that possible?" Ronan shot back. Patrick smiled a little. That was a good burn, he had to admit. "I can tell that you have a lot on your mind, I can see everything that's going through your head and it's making your singing come out…funny and kind of forced." He leaned back in his seat, watching as Patrick took the headphones from around his neck and rested them on the stool before leaving the booth, closing the door behind him. Ronan motioned for him to sit down on the couch that rested against the back wall behind him.

Patrick flopped down, stretching out as long as he could. He put his hands behind his head, turning to face his adoptive father. Ronan walked himself forward in his rolling chair, arms resting on his knees. "I know you're bummed that you could go to San Francisco with the others. I'm annoyed too."

Peering at him out of the corner of his eye, Patrick smirked. "Did you have a date with Mama Knight?"

"No, with Gustavo."

"I never knew you swung that way."

"I don't and after the way Gustavo basically demanded that I go with him to scout out some new talent to sign to Rocque Records I'm sure more than ever that I'm straight."

Patrick laughed.

"Anyway, you've been working hard all day, why don't you take a break and we can go back at it later?"

"No thanks." Patrick stubbornly looked at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the wall. "I'd rather stay here and do my best _not _to think about what I'm mad about." He felt his lips pursing before he pressed them together as hard as he could. He hadn't felt this angry since he had, basically, lost his way, and started to street fight a bunch of kids in the park. Katie had found out what he was doing and went along with him to be sure he was OK and she ended up getting hurt because of him. The two of them hadn't told Kendall about it, knowing how angry he would become, probably beating up Patrick himself. Patrick had seen the blonde do worse over a kid just saying he thought Katie was hot, he didn't want to know what would happen if he blew up at Katie due to his own insecurities.

Yeah, he could admit it to himself, he was insecure. Hearing that other guy on the phone, he should have known that if she wasn't spending time with him he was going to be spending time with someone else. Who wouldn't want to spend time with her? Especially considering he was the one that was leaving all the time. He only stayed in LA for months at a time, his career permanently being held in Australia, his home. And the times he would be gone, he had a very tiny monster of a thought that would plague him, having him, obsessively in a way, wonder what she was doing and who she was with. Recognizing it as a bit of a controlling thought he would push it away, but now…

_Knock knock._

Patrick tilted his chin down and watched as Katie slowly walked into the room, holding a large picnic basket by both of her hands. "Hey Katie," Ronan greeted her. Patrick stayed silent, moving his eyes away as she turned to look at him. "What brings you here?" Ronan then let out a short breath. "That was a dumb question," he murmured. Standing up, he straightened his tie before running his hands over the legs of his jeans. "I'm going to go call Gustavo and have him yell at me some more."

"Way to be subtle," Patrick said scornfully.

"I learn from the best," Ronan shot back.

Katie cleared her throat as Ronan left the room. "Uh, hey," she greeted.

"Hey," Patrick said shortly. He sat up, bringing a foot up onto the couch. The least he could do was give her a place to sit, though part of him was telling him to make her stand and try and hold onto the basket that was clearly too heavy for her. "What are you doing here?" He reached up and started to pull at the stud piercing below his lower lip. "Don't you have someone else that you have to be with? Or something else to do for that matter?"

Katie struggled to hold p the picnic basket. Finally, she placed it on the floor before walking over to the couch and sitting on the end of it. Patrick pulled his foot back, pulling himself further against the arm of the couch behind him. Katie tucked her hair behind her ear, her eyes lowering. "No," she said somewhat forcefully. "What would give you that idea?"

"Probably because you've been ditching me so much lately." His eyes flashed dangerously. "You can't deny that. We haven't hung out together in ages."

"It hasn't been that long."

"Long enough."

"Long enough for what?"

"For you to find someone else to want to be with." A heavy silence hung in the air between the two of them. They had no idea where to go from there. Patrick, on one hand, was annoyed at the whole thing. Who cares if they were busy? Being in a long distance relationship was something he knew he was risking when he had asked her out in that silly, somewhat desperate way that he had done—he still remembered the smile on her face when she saw his interpretation of the 'do you like me, check yes, no, or maybe' tactic. Katie, on the other hand, was completely baffled as to how he could have jumped so far to that conclusion, that she didn't want to spend any time with him.

Did he not understand how hard it was for her? She was the one that was 'normal'. The one that had been able to do what no other girl had done but dreamed of. She was dating a celebrity. She knew the risks but couldn't help herself. They just went so well together, it couldn't be stopped. And now she was getting the brakes slammed in her face.

"Do you not want to go out anymore?" She asked.

"Don't you?" Patrick surprised her with asking.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're the one that was with another guy today," Patrick pointed out.

"What other—?" Katie thought for a long moment and then nodded slowly. It all made sense now. Surging to her feet, she leaned over and punched Patrick hard on the shoulder. He cried out in pain, a second before wincing and backing away from her. "I was with Kendall!" She explained. "He was bugging me while I was on the phone with you! Who else would I want to be with?" She felt herself starting to blush at her outburst.

"Dak maybe?" Patrick suggested. "James? Jett? Beau?" He threw his hands into the air. "You say that you're not a girl that likes to talk about boys, but you sure do crush easily." He reached out a hand and grabbed Katie's fist, twisting her arm away from him as she moved to punch him again. "Please don't do that." Katie dropped her hand to her side. "So if you're not with another guy…where are you always going?"

Katie bit her lip. "I can't tell you."

Patrick's eyebrow twitched. "Fine." He held up a hand. "Fine. You know what I don't even care." His stomach growled. He stuck out a foot, hooking the handle of the basket over the curve of his foot, slowly dragging it towards him. "This is for me, right?"

"I don't know." Katie's foot landed on top of the basket, halting its process. "You were being kind of mean to me today."

"Can you blame me?"

"Not really." Katie removed her foot from the top of the basket, taking another step towards him. "Yes, the food is for you. Kendall proved that he really is a girl by helping me make you lunch." She brushed her hair behind her ears. "But, I want to give you this first." She placed her hands on his shoulders and stood on her tiptoes, giving him a kiss.

Patrick kissed her back, wrapping an arm around her lower back, pulling her closer to him. Katie found herself smiling when Patrick pulled back, blowing a strand of his dyed blonde hair out of his blue eyes. "Yeah, you're definitely a Knight, because that was cheesy as hell."

"It was bound to happen," Katie sniped. "Are you going to eat or not?"

"Clearly you haven't met me because nothing can get between me and food," Patrick said. He rubbed his hands together as Katie grabbed the basket and opened it, taking out a couple pieces of food wrapped up in paper towels. "Did Carlos ever regain full mobility in his left hand yet?"

"Not yet," Katie said. "And that's a good thing or else he would actually kick our butts in Battle Blaster."

"How's that any different? I always beat you?" Patrick reminded her.

Katie gave a harsh sigh. "You're annoying."

"And an awesome kisser as well as having great hair." Patrick gave a smarmy smile. He looked down at his lap as Katie continued to empty the basket, clenching his hand into a tight fist.

There was still something that wasn't sitting right with him but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

* * *

**A/N: **For putting one of the genres of this story as Romance I haven't been doing a lot of it. Of course that's going to be made up for as the story goes on. Don't forget that it's only a ten chapter story. Haha. A little more underlying tension between Patrick and Katie though it's just their insecurities that they're not talking to each other about butting heads. I find it kind of fun. But at least they had a sweet moment towards the end.

With five chapters left things will progress even more and you'll see some other bonding moments. I hope you guys are still enjoying the story.

Cheers,

-Riles


	6. Chapter 6

**.:Chapter Six:.**

* * *

"Are you ever going to stop pouting?" Katie glanced at Lizzie out of the corner of her eye as the blonde smeared sunscreen onto her arms. She was stretched out on the towel beside her, a pair of pink sunglasses hiding her eyes. "It's just the beach Katie; you didn't have to come if you didn't want to." Lizzie put the bottle of sunscreen down and leaned back on her arms. She placed a delicate hand on her chest. "I mean, _I _wanted you to come, _everyone _wanted you to come. We miss you when you're not around."

_Yeah right, _Katie thought. She looked over at Lizzie's surfboard as it sat in the sand next to her, soaking up the sun's rays. _If that were the case, why is everyone in the water without me? _She let out another frustrated sigh, the same one she had heaved when the group arrived at the beach and she saw how big the waves were. A part of her was really excited to be able to—finally—show off what she had learned, but then she had been stuck on the beach, being told that the waves were too rough for her to ride. She had tried to argue about it, but Kendall, because he was such an overprotective brother had quickly nixed the idea.

She was sure that he only did it because Riley said it first and wanted to try and avoid an argument between the two. (Though she was also sure that they liked to argue as they did it so often, encompassing their competitive attitudes). She had pleaded with Rhuben to let her go and even she had turned her down, but with good reason; Katie barely had any experience on the water, and she wouldn't e ale to gauge whether or not it was a wave that was a good size, or would gather power and size as it moved to shore.

So Katie was stuck on shore with Sydney, who was trying to outdo himself and build and even bigger sandcastle than before—though to her eye it looked like a sand palace. He didn't seem too bothered that his siblings banished him to the shore. Lizzie had decided to stay on shore so that she could work on her tan, which was something she enjoyed doing as much as surfing in general. Katie was a little annoyed that she wasn't upset with staying on the beach.

"Why would I be?" she asked, her wide blue eyes widening even further. The epitome of innocence. "I mean, I get to work on my tan, and I get to watch Noah half naked all day." She grinned. "What could be better than that?"

"Uh, actually being in the water?" Katie pointed out. "You talk about it enough."

"It's just a hobby," Lizzie said. She waved her hand. "I have a lot of hobbies." Her head turned as a couple boys her brother's age ran by, dogs at their sides.

"Like boy watching?"

"Exactly." Lizzie lifted her sunglasses and regarded Katie with concern. "Look, I know that you're trying really hard to learn…but your brother is right. The waves are too rough. You're only just learning how—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Katie immediately felt bad for snapping and she shot an apologetic look at the blonde, who smiled back, lowering her sunglasses once more. All was forgiven. "I'm just…anxious I guess. I don't want Patrick to think I'm dating someone else again. I need to learn fast."

_"It's not something you can learn in days, Kid. It takes a long time to even get your body in shape to hold your board if not to balance. And you also have to take time to study the breaks at different beaches so you know what to expect. But I promise I'll have you up on a wave soon, yeah?"_

Riley's words scrolled through Katie's head, Rhuben's following them; _"You're being entirely too hard on yourself. It took the guys just as long to learn how. Sure, we learned fast, but we're fortunate enough to live on the water. If you took your time to learn how to play soccer or to ride a horse, then you need to take your time with this."_

Lizzie's voice broke the brunette out of her thoughts. "You know Pat's been hanging around me and No a lot lately?"

"Really?" She could see that. Patrick and Noah were really close, almost joined at the hip. And Lizzie had been one of their first friends in the US. The four of them were their own group of friends, a part of the large group that Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James seemed to have collected along the way since they arrived on the west coast from the mid-west.

"Yeah." Lizzie sat up, taking off her sunglasses. She squinted, looking out into the water. "He's been really lonely lately. And I don't mind having him around, but No and I like to be alone sometimes, you know?" Katie did know. With everyone going in and out of each other's houses and apartments, it was hard to get some time alone with someone. Most of the time it wasn't a problem as there was always something to do or someone to hang out with. "Noah hasn't said anything about it, but I know he's getting kind of annoyed."

"Oh." Katie played with her fingers. So this really was all her fault. Now Noah and Lizzie were having problems all because of her. Katie's eyes darted over to Lizzie's surfboard. It was a short board; Katie hadn't tried to ride a short board before. She remembered Riley saying something about it being hard to control if you didn't know how. But it was smaller and lighter…how hard could it be?

Finding herself moving before her brain even recognized what she was doing, Katie scrambled up from her towel and grabbed Lizzie's surfboard. She tied the leash to her ankle and tucked the board under her arm, trotting off into the water, ignoring Lizzie's questioning calls behind her. She jumped into the water, shocked at how cold it was, before starting to paddle her way towards the waves. Her heart hammered in her chest; she was sure it ricocheted against the board as she pulled her arms through the water. It sounded loud enough. Or maybe it was thumping in her ears. Still, Katie surged on, rhythmically scooping the water back behind her. The waves crashed off the rocks to her left, hitting her with a spray.

Whenever a wave came her way, instead of duck diving underneath it or pulled her body up from the board so that it would roll between her and the board, she allowed it to push her back and have her start the process all over again. She knew it would make her tired faster, but she didn't want to risk not making it out to the waves. _I can do this. _She could prove to everyone that she knew what she was doing. That she didn't need help.

All of a sudden, she heard loud calls and shrieks from other surfers in the water. There was a low rumbling sound. Katie sat up. Her hazel eyes widened. A wall of water was heading towards her. The wave couldn't have been more than seven or eight feet, but as she was inexperienced it look more like twenty or thirty to Katie, all heading right towards her. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," she murmured. She started to turn and paddle back to the beach. Lizzie was now standing on the shore with Sydney by her side, both scanning the water for her. Katie continued to paddle, finding her arms growing more tired.

All of a sudden, she could feel herself starting to get lifted up and knew, paralyzed with fear, that the wave had caught up with her and now held her. A scream escaped Katie's throat as she pitched forward over the nose of the surfboard and fell into the water. She felt a sharp tug on her leg before it released—Lizzie's surfboard breaking free of the leash—and she fell deeper in the water.

Everything was muffled though she could still hear the roar surround her like a train barreling down the tracks. No matter how she moved her arms and legs, she was enveloped by the water, holding her down, threatening to keep her in the watery grave. Finally, she felt her body start to rise…or was it falling? She wasn't sure. Katie sputtered as her head broke the surface of the water. She barely managed to get a breath in before she was knocked head over heels by another incoming wave. The water swirled and bubbled around her, in large swirls. It was disorienting. Closing her eyes, Katie did what she was remembered being told, cross her arms and hold it over her head, tucking her chin to her chest. In case there was any debris floating around, she didn't want to get struck by it.

Her lungs started to burn as she continued to ride the spin cycle and Katie frantically opened her eyes. Bubbles continued to swirl around her, she had no idea which way was up or down. Frantically, Katie scrambled in the direction her head was pointed—down—and swam as hard as she could. Her head broke the water and she sucked in another breath, this time half mixed with water. Her throat immediately spasmed at the salt water that had filled her mouth, shooting down her throat. She spit it out, choking, trying to get some of the precious air. Wave after wave rolled into her and Katie tried her hardest to keep her head above water.

Finally, there was a quick lull between waves and Katie continued to windmill her arms and kick her legs, trying to keep herself up. She could feel herself already starting to get tired, her legs moving slower and slower through the water, bringing her chin closer and closer to the surface. Finally, Katie spotted her friends and her bobbing in the water a ways away. "Kendall!" Katie called as loud as he could. She could feel water on her cheeks, not sure if it were tears or droplets from ocean. "Kendall! Help me!" She called again.

Her head dunked under water and when she resurfaced she could hear shouting and the sound of frantic splashing. She couldn't tell if Kendall had heard her or if anyone not he beach was coming to help her, she could only just barely keep her head above water. Katie continued to flail through the water, kicking her legs as hard as she could. Her arm movements were slowing as well. She was getting very tired now, eyelids starting to fall. She was choking now more than she was breathing as tiny slaps of water hit her in the chin and mouth. "Ow!" Katie tried to move her right foot but found it stuck. She kicked hard and cried out again when something scraped against her ankle. Her leg was stuck. "Ow!"

Reaching down, Katie grabbed her knee and tried to pull it up as hard as she could, then stopped, feeling the sharp rock—or whatever it was—scrape against her ankle. The immediate fear of releasing blood into the water and bringing sharks towards her caused her to seize up with fear, allowing another wave to bowl her over. Her legs would have come clear over her head if she hadn't been stuck. As it was, the force of the wall of water against her caused her right leg to buckle, twisting at the knee, shooting even more pain through her body.

"Katie!" Katie felt a hand grab onto her arm, near her shoulder and her head was lifted out of the water. Katie started to couch, slamming her eyes shut as water fell into her green eyes, stinging them. "Katie! Are you ok?" Finally getting her eyes open she spotted her brother right in front of her, looking at her in concern. He was holding her head up, directing it towards him and out of the way of the water. On either side of him, Riley and Rhuben were treading water, looking at her.

"Is she OK?"

Katie could hear Logan's anxious voice behind her and twisted her head around to see him, James, and Carlos standing on the large chunk of rock that extended from the beach to the water. Carlos was on his knees, bobbing and weaving back and forth, looking through the water. His eyes were squinted.

"I'm OK," Katie finally managed to say. "My foot's stuck! Get me out!"

"Hang on Katie, Patrick and Noah went to get a lifeguard," James said, trying to reassure her. He let out a cry of pain when Carlos shot out a hand and started to slap him on the leg. "What is it?" In normal instances, he would have kicked Carlos in the side of the head if not heave him in the water himself just for getting hit like that.

"Her foot is caught between rocks down there," Carlos said.

Logan knelt down beside him as well, her eyes narrowing as he peered at it. "Looks like she already cut herself." His face then paled. "There's a lot of algae and stuff, the cut could get infected. We need to get her out now." He stood up and pressed a few button so his watch. "You only have time between waves to try and get her out or else you'll be knocked around and become disoriented. I don't want to risk that."

"I'll get her." James took a deep breath and dove into the water behind Kendall.

Katie spat out another mouthful of air as Riley and Rhuben moved to Katie's side to help Kendall hold her up. Katie could still feel herself getting buffeted by the waves. Even though her head was being held above water, her foot being caught kept her in the position for her to get slapped in the face by the spray. She felt like she was drowning.

"You have to keep her head tilted back," Rhuben said to Kendall, gently doing so. "Or else the water will continue to get in her mouth."

"I'm trying," Kendall replied, his voice filled with emotion. He held onto his sister as tightly as he could. Katie could barely feel his hands on her, her body had frown numb. "Hang on Baby Sister, we'll get you out of here."

Katie could feel a hand on her ankle, then James's fingers close around her leg. She could feel him start to pull her foot back and she immediately kicked out with her left foot, trying to swat him away. Another cry of pain escaped her lips. It hurt too much. Had she just gotten her foot broken? It felt like it. "Ow! Ow!"

She kicked once more and she felt James let go of her foot before resurfacing beside them, running his hand back over his head. He coughed once. "Her foot is really wedged into the rocks down there," he relayed. "I can't get her out."

"Let me try." Kendall let go of his sister and backed up so that James could take his place.

"No!" Riley shot out a hand and held onto his arm. "Let us do it. Hey!" Riley's gripped Katie's arm, her voice commanding yet gentle. "Stay with us, Kid. We're not going to let anything happen to you, yeah?" She looked at Rhuben, who nodded and the two took a deep breath before sliding under the water. James moved to Katie's side and grabbed onto her shoulders as Kendall continued to try and hold her head above water.

"You're going to be OK, Katie," Kendall said to her, pressing his forehead against hers. "You're going to be OK."

Katie sniffed loudly. "I'm sorry," she whimpered.

"Don't worry about it. We're gonna get you out." She could see Kendall's eyes move to her forehead before he looked at James. He said something to him; all of a sudden Katie couldn't hear it. She could see his mouth moving, she could see the concern and fear in his eyes, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.

Was she passing out?

What was going on?

Katie barely managed to nod.

She felt James's arm move around her waist, holding her tightly against him. Though it was inappropriate for the occasion, Katie knew that if it was a different situation, James would have been making some sort of a joke about her non-existent crush on him and how happy she would have been to have him hold her like that. At the moment the only thing she wanted to hold onto was dry land and her mother. Why did she have to stay at the Palm Woods that day? Sure, she deserved the time off from the rambunctious teenagers that constantly seemed to plague her life. But right now Katie wanted nothing more than for her mother to hold her in her arms, and gently rock her, telling her that everything was going to be OK.

"How long have they been down there?" Carlos asked, still kneeling down by the side of the water. He got to his feet and started to pace back and forth, raising his hands up to shield his eyes as he scanned the horizon. He then pointed. "I think I see the boat coming."

"Almost three minutes," Logan said, looking at his watch. "I don't think they can stay down much longer." He grabbed Carlos's shoulder and shook him. "Go flag down the boat."

"Got it." Carlos turned and started to, carefully, run along the rocks, waving his arms above his head as he went. A dinghy filled with two lifeguards, Patrick, Noah, and Lizzie raced towards the shore. Lizzie pointed over towards Carlos and the boat turned in their direction.

Katie suddenly jerked back in surprise, feeling two pairs of hands land on her ankle. She could feel her foot twisting back and forth, causing her eyes to slam shut in pain and fear. This was it, she was either going to drown or a shark was going to come over and take them all down with one bite. Her foot continued to twist back and forth and she felt the rock slide over her already raw ankle and then suddenly pop free. She fell backwards against James, her foot coming up almost hit Kendall in the face, the water mixing with the blood from her cuts. Beside her, Riley and Rhuben finally surfaced from underwater, taking in large gasps of air.

"Is she OK?" Rhuben asked, brushing her hair from her face.

"I think so," Kendall replied. He wiped a hand over his face. "Thank You."

"No worries," Riley replied.

As if saving her life had been nothing at all.

Katie didn't have a chance to thank them herself as she was dragged back through the water. She could hear the sound of a motor dying seconds before she had hands grabbing onto her and she was pulled out of the water. She felt something warm and fluffy land on her before her eyes closed and she was lost to darkness.

* * *

When Katie opened her eyes in the hospital, the first thing she was greeted with—and scowled at—was a large balloon in the shape of a clown. No doubt Carlos or James got her the stupid present. They knew she always hated clowns, having never been amused by them, and that they—she hoped—got it for her as a gift. Her eyes moving down, Katie could see flowers and get well cards resting on the bedside table.

_How long have I been here? _She thought, reaching a hand up to her head. She felt a gauze pad on her forehead, just to the left of her temple. With a slight touch, she felt shooting pain course through her head and groaned slightly.

"Yeah, you got a pretty good knock on the head," a nurse said as she walked over, holding onto a clipboard. "Your ankle is pretty worked up as well; you're going to be out of commission for a while." She held her clipboard to her chest. "But from what your brother has told me as long as you have a laptop and online poker you'll be fine."

Katie smiled softly. "Yeah, I prefer to cheat people out of their money more than anything in life," she said. The nurse laughed and walked over to her.

"The doctor will be in soon," she said. "But while you wait there's some people that want to see you."

Katie sat up. "Is my Mom here?"

"She's on her way. She was notified as you were on your way here. You really gave us a fright, Katie. You really have someone looking out for you up there." The nurse gave Katie another smile before leaving the room. Katie rolled her head the other way, looking out the window. She rolled her eyes when she caught a glimpse of the ocean through the buildings. Of course she would get a view of the thing that had almost killed her. Though it was her own fault.

Katie dropped her head back onto the pillow, staring at the ceiling. What was she thinking? For the first time in her life, she allowed her jealousy to get the best of her. She wasn't happy knowing that she was stuck on the beach when her friends were able to go into the water just because they had been surfing for longer. She hated knowing that there were fans out in the water that could connect with all of them more than her. That was just it. She was jealous and she hated it. No matter everyone made fun of Kendall becoming such a nutcase whenever he got jealous about his girlfriends. She had watched him when that whole thing with Jo and Jett came around and she thought it was pathetic. She vowed then she would never get to that point and it was exactly what she had done.

"It must run in the family," she murmured.

"Doing something stupid to get someone's attention, yeah I'd kinda have to agree with you there," Patrick said as he entered the room, carrying a stuffed bear in his hands. "Here's a tip; the next time you want to surprise someone, don't do it by trying to drown yourself."

Katie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I wasn't trying to _drown _myself, moron. I was trying to—"

"I know, you were trying to surprise me," Patrick said. He grabbed a chair that was resting against the wall and dragged it over to the bed. He turned it around backwards and sat down, holding out the bear towards her. Katie took it, feeling the scowl on her face melt into a smile. "Remind me to have a talk with Riles; we made a pact when I was two that we wouldn't keep secrets from each other." He rested his arms on top of the chair, resting his chin on it after. "If you wanted to learn how to surf, why didn't you just ask?"

"Do you not understand the point of the word _surprise_?" Katie looked at him. She was sure her eyebrow was raised in a skeptic expression, but she couldn't tell as there was so much tape and gauze around her head. If it were anyone else, she would have laughed and teased them about their free facelift.

Patrick licked his lips. "Ok, then let me rephrase the question…why did you wait so long to want to learn? We've been trying to get you to go to the beach for ages." He pointed at her. "Even when you admitted that you had fun at the beach party thing."

"That was only fun because I got Russell Brand to sign me on as a talent manager."

"And look how well that turned out, he won't let you actually do it until you're eighteen."

"That's only two years away and I'm still learning while I wait." Silence stretched out between the two. Katie turned her attention to the bear in her hands, gently pulling at its nose before looking it over. It was the same sort of thing that she could have won herself form the carnival, but the fact it was holding a tiny surfboard under its arm that had hearts dotting it made her smile. "You know the only reason I did this was because I was…I don't know…jealous, I guess, that there were fans that could hang out with you at the beach and I couldn't."

Patrick blinked in confusion for a moment then his eyebrows rose, his eyes closed, and he slowly nodded. The perfect expression of clarity. "Oh, that one time at the beach. Yeah…she was cool and everything, it's always nice to find some girls that aren't afraid to get dirty." His nose wrinkled. "I mean, don't get me wrong all girls are cool in their own way, but its nice if there's something you have in common with them."

"Which is what I was trying to do," Katie insisted.

"But at the same time, its fine if there are some things that you don't share," Patrick insisted. "Like, I could never be as good at Poker as you are, and I don't think I could ever cheat anyone out of their money unless I absolutely had to and you don't see me begging you to kick my ass and take my money." Katie felt her heart sink as she frowned. Patrick must have noticed her distress because he moved closer to her and grabbed her hand. "I'm not saying this right." He licked his lips. "What I mean is that it's really sweet…and flattering, that you wanted to learn to impress me. But you don't have to worry about someone else getting my attention. I only want to date you, whether or not we do have a lot in common."

Katie squeezed his hand in hers. "That was sweet, Patrick," she said then paused. "In the only way that you could do," She added, knowing if it were anyone else it would have probably been a more romantic kind of speech. But that's what she liked about him, he did things his own way and always managed to make her smile. "I hope I didn't cause too much trouble."

"No, not really," Patrick said. There was a hint of condescension in his tone. "It filled out quota, because every time we're all together, there's always something that goes wrong." He waved a hand. "Usually it's Carlos getting into something or Kendall opening his big mouth because he always has to talk back. But this time it was you, so congratulations." He gave an over the top smile and threw in two thumbs up for added effect.

Katie laughed, and then winced, closing her eyes. There was that shooting pain again. How did any of the boys manage to play so many hockey games? They got hurt worse than she did and they always managed to keep going. "Don't make me laugh, my head still hurts."

"Sorry." Patrick stood up, pushing the chair away from him. "I'm sure the others want to see you too, I'll stop hogging your time." He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Did I ever thank you?" She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, suspicious. This could either be a really nice sentiment or something that would make her laugh again. She wasn't opposed to either one, but she wanted to be prepared if her head was going to hurt again. "For thinking of me and wanting to surprise me with learning something I love to do?" Katie shook her head. "Thanks. I haven't had a girl do that before, sincerely anyway. It means a lot. And when you get healed we can all go out to the beach OK?"

"Ok."

Patrick leaned tilted his head down and kissed her, a sweet, gently kiss that had Katie grinning like a loon when he pulled back. He winked at her before walking towards the door of the room. "By the way," he added over his shoulder. "You're a lot better than anyone I could find on the beach."

"Get out," Katie instructed.

Patrick laughed and disappeared from sight.

Katie settled back into her pillows, waiting for the next person to come into the room. Closing her eyes she leaned back onto the pillow, listening to the waves in the distance crash against the shore.

* * *

**THE END**

* * *

**A/N: **Whoo, kinda dramatic and suspenseful, eh? I know I said that there would be five other chapters to the story, but I wasn't sure how much longer I could draw out the plot honestly. That's why this chapter ended up being the longest one. Plus, I did originally say the story was going to be 5-10 chapters long so it was going to fall anywhere between that. The only thing I'm not happy about is not bringing in more of the other characters, but then again I find writing Katie to be slightly limiting that way. It's a challenge and I always like challenging myself with my writing. I hope it doesn't make you too disappointed.

Thank you to everyone that had read and reviewed the story. I always like writing Katie and getting inside her head a bit more, so doing a side of her that was trying to be sweet for her boyfriend was fun. And it was nice to get back into the BTR fandom. I've been re-watching episodes and have gotten some new inspiration and motivation for some BTR stuff for a while so I'll probably have something new up soon.

Cheers,

-Riles


End file.
